The car was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport Section to be used as General Montgomery's staff car. The owner was the head of a car dealership, and agreed on the condition that it did not cross the Channel, because he did not want it blown up or shot at. Well... it was only safe for a while.
The Rolls Royce Phantom was subsequently used regularly by General Montgomery to commute between his home in Virginia Waters and London.
During the secret D-Day planning at Southwick House, King George VI, General Eisenhower and Winston Churchill were driven in this car.
Unfortunately after D-Day the Phantom was reassigned to the head muckety muck of the United States Air Force, some General with a delicate bottom from a lifetime of desk jockeying a lounge chair, and an American fuel tanker backed into it causing some damage.
In the 1950s at the time of the Suez crisis, the car was purchased by a planter in Malaya and shipped out to Penang. It crossed the Suez canal, was driven to the south of Italy and shipped to Malaya via Capetown and the Indian Ocean.
How about this cigar lighter? Nice historic relic.
http://www.cheshireclassiccars.co.uk/classic-cars-for-sale/1936-rolls-royce-phantom-iii
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