St Barnabas Hospice receives £25,000 donation after late Grantham engineer's rare Bugatti car sells for £4 million

The St Barnabas Hospice unit in Grantham Hospital has received a bumper £25,000 donation after a classic car sold for £4.2 million at auction.

The 1937 Bugatti car belonged to late Grantham man Bill Turnbull, who was a chief designer for JCB, and had spent years restoring it.

He had not quite finished it when he passed away in 2019.

His good friend Clive Rollinson, of Winchester Road, Grantham, was given power of attorney when Bill died and put the car up for auction at the famous auction house Bonhams in London, after it had been mechanically restored to Bill’s exacting standards by a Bugatti agency.

The car ended up reaching an incredible £4.2 million when it went under the hammer in February.

Clive, 86, first got to know his friend when Bill moved to Grantham.

Clive said: “Bill lived in Grantham for a long time and we first became friends in 1980 as we were both engineers.

“When he passed away I became an executor of his will with one other person.”“The will was a very unusual one because money has been left to various situations but with the freedom to either increase, decrease or not to give at all.

“We were able to fulfil the will because the Bugatti sold for £4.2 million. Bear in mind that it was just a chassis and we built it up over two years.

“I sat down with the other executor to fulfil the will and we were then left with a pot of money that we had to get rid of. It was my wish to give £25,000 to the hospice.”

Clive first got to know about St Barnabas Hospice when he became a trustee of GIFTS Hospice – an independent hospice before becoming St Barnabas – before becoming the vice chairman.

He added: “I am very proud of St Barnabas Hospice and what they’ve done. It means the world to me. It’s such a wonderful thing. When GIFTS couldn’t continue, sooner than sell we asked St Barnabas if they would like to take over everything.”

Clive presented the enormous sum to the ‘Hospice at the Hospital’ during a special ceremony on Tuesday.

Paisley Paddison, fund-raising officer for St Barnabas Hospice, was overwhelmed with the amount.

She said: “It was such an honour to meet Clive and hear the story of this donation. £25,000 is an incredible amount of money and it will go a long way towards supporting end-of-life care in Lincolnshire.

“As an example, this money could pay for 34 days of specialist inpatient care for someone with complex care needs.”

Donations also went to various other charities including The Stroke Association, Macmillan Cancer Support, Compassionate Friends as well as The JCB Academy for young engineers, to build a suite named after Bill with all the latest engineering facilities.

Clive added: “We also gave a donation to The Bugatti Association who plan to name a race after Bill.”

The 1937 Bugatti Type 57S was one of only 42 produced and had been off the road for the past 50 years and is one of the world’s most valuable and desirable pre-war motor cars. Bonhams described the car as a “rediscovered treasure”.

The car was a custom-built four-seater with a sports Grand Routier body and powerful 3.3-litre engine, which made the 57S the fastest road car of its day.

With the success of the marque on the racetrack during the golden era of the 1930s, Bugatti sports cars were regarded as Grand Prix cars for the road and were often the off-duty transport for leading racing drivers.

Soon after buying the 57S in 1969 and, after a short period of use, Bill stripped it down to start a full restoration. His work was almost complete at the time of his death two years ago.

Clive added: “It’s an honour to do this in Bill’s memory.”