The tragic death, aged 29, of Kent aristocrat Earl Louis Zborowski, of Bridge, near Canterbury, who inspired Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

The extraordinary life of a fabulously wealthy aristocrat from Kent ended in tragedy 100 years ago when he crashed his racing car at the Italian Grand Prix.

After countless daring exploits behind the wheel, Count Louis Zborowski’s luck ran out at the age of 29.

It was in Higham Park, in Bridge, near Canterbury. where his passion for speed and especially for building fast cars began.

At a time when there were few vehicles on the roads of east Kent, the sight and thunderous sound of the ‘Chitty Bang Bang’ machines built by the Earl himself became familiar.

Zborowski was a “gentleman driver” who, at age 16, would have become the fourth richest under-21 in the world, following the death of his extremely wealthy mother.

His exploits and self-built cars later caught the attention of James Bond author Ian Fleming and inspired him to write the children’s story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which led to the film musical about a car that could fly.

The young Earl managed to indulge his passion for motor racing after inheriting £11 million in cash – a staggering £1.3 billion in today’s money – as well as real estate across the United States, including seven acres in Manhattan and several blocks on Fifth Avenue. in New York.

He lived at Higham Park – now known as Highland Court – which his widowed mother, Margaret Zborowski, a relative of the Astors, bought in 1910 for £17,500 and included 225 acres of farmland and 12 houses.

She then spent £50,000 renovating the properties.

Louis, who was half Polish and half American, was determined to be a racing driver despite the death of his own father, William, who fell fatally on the climb up La Turbie hill in Nice, France, in 1903.

He became a patron of Aston Martin and raced for the marque at Brooklands and the 1922 French Grand Prix. The following year he competed in the Indianapolis 500 in a Bugatti and the Italian Grand Prix.

But he found more fame with his own racing car creations, built at Higham Park stables.

Working with engineer and co-driver Captain Clive Gallop, who was later racing engineer for the ‘Bentley Boys’, they produced a Maybach-powered 23-litre racing monster, which became the first in a series of cars they called by Chitty Bang Bang.

Local residents became familiar with the noise of the cars as the young Count tested them on his long driveway and surrounding roads.

He also had a motor workshop on St Radigund’s Street in Canterbury, where racing cars were developed.

It is said that the vehicles made so much noise that a law was passed prohibiting them from entering the city walls.

In total he built five cars, racing them with some success at Brooklands, the last being a 27-litre aero engined monster which he called ‘The Higham Special’.

Ever the adventurer, in 1922 Louis, his wife Vi and Clive Gallop, along with some mechanics, took two Chitty Bang Bangs across the Mediterranean for a ride to the Sahara Desert.

The following year he competed in the Indianapolis 500 in a Bugatti and then drove the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in a car designed by American engineer Harry Arminius Miller.

Earl Zborowski was also a railway enthusiast and created a 15-inch gauge line called the Higham Railway, around his estate near Canterbury, on which he operated a steam engine.

Recently, a 70-year-old film was discovered in a closet and said to be part of a series of home movies made by the Count and Clive Gallop, who attempted to recreate favorite scenes from popular Hollywood silent films.

Louis starred as a villain searching for hidden treasure and many scenes showed the mile-long private railway in Higham.

It was discovered in a collection of amateur films owned by well-known Canterbury businessman Sidney Bligh, who died in 1942.

The footage has now been edited and digitized by Canterbury Christ Church University film professor Tim Jones for the Canterbury Amateur Film Archive.

The Earl’s personal railway became the inspiration for him and another racing friend, Captain J. E. P. Howey, to build a long-distance passenger-carrying railway line on the same gauge.

Together they founded the 14-mile-long Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, for which the Earl commissioned the manufacturer of several locomotives. Now run by a trust fund, the line remains a popular tourist attraction and a means of local transportation.

But perhaps inevitably, after surviving a series of accidents, Louis’ luck ran out.

He had joined the Mercedes team in 1924, but died in one of his cars after crashing into a tree on the 44th lap of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on 19 October 1924.

He never saw the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in action because of his early death, but the project was continued by Captain Howey.

After Louis’ death, there was another tragedy, this time related to one of his cars.

His prized Higham Special was purchased by JG Parry-Thomas to bid for the land speed record. But in an attempt at Pendine Sands in 1927, the car rolled over at more than 100mph and burst into flames, killing Parry-Thomas.

After his death, residents of Patrixbourne claimed to have begun seeing visions of a ghostly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang thundering through the streets.

Author Ian Fleming has long been a fan of Count Zborowski, watching in awe as a boy when he raced at Brooklands.

Later, when his friend Walter Whigham acquired Higham Park, renaming it Highland Court, he visited the estate and learned more about the earl’s exploits, which inspired him to write the story of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

During the Second World War, like many other rural properties, the house was requisitioned by the War Office and designated for use by the British Army as a hospital.

It continued to serve as a hospital post-war, operating as the gynecology unit of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital from 1951 until it closed in 1981.

The property and 25 acres were put on the market by the local NHS Trust in 1994, with associated planning permission for the creation of a hotel.

The following year, Amanda Harris-Deans and Patricia Gibb, and Gibb’s son Barry, bought the property and land for around £1.5 million.

They began a sympathetic renovation of the largely abandoned property, completing most of the work in the mid-2000s.

They opened the gardens to the public and also organized antique fairs.

But they later decided to downsize and sold the property in 2005 to a private buyer.