Clément Panhard on the Web
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Our Clément Panhard, Clementine, was imported into the United Kingdom by Colonel Walter Herbert Baxter (1866-1917) of Sherborne, Dorset in 1900. He collected the car from the factory in Paris in June 1900 and with the aid of an employee from the Clement factory drove it to a dock in France and then sailed across to Southampton.
In Southampton, he was met by Mr Herbert Farthing, an employee of Childs & Sons in Sherborne, and together they drove the car the 60 miles to Sherborne. In June 1942, Mr Farthing retold the adventure on the BBC Home Service programme 'In Britain Now'.
On 1 January 1904, the 1903 Motor Car Act came into force requiring all vehicles to be registered and increasing the speed limit on public highways to 20 mph from 14 mph which had been set by the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896.
Col. Baxter (left) on the car around 1900 outside of The Wilderness in Sherborne
Clementine was registered on 11 August 1904 and the plate assigned was ‘BF 149’, with the ‘BF’ denoting Dorset. Unfortunately, the ‘BF’ plate didn’t endure for long due to humorous associations, including the unkind moniker of ‘bloody fool.’ Consequently, in 1905, it was replaced with the more neutral designation of ‘FX’.
The honour of 'BF 1', and subsequent 'FX 1', went to John Phelps Gooddens, of Compton House in Sherborne, with his 10hp Wolseley which he registered on 11 December 1903. Today that registration plate is assigned to a Tesla.
Edwin Childs, the owner of Childs & Sons, reminisced about the early days of motoring and the 'heroic' Colonel Baxter:
"Motoring in those early days could be a hazardous experience. The heroic Colonel and his car would venture forth, but more often than not the car would stop and fail to restart somewhere along the planned journey and Edwin would be standing by to rescue the stranded Colonel and his car. Borrowing two strong horses from the Brewery and equipped with a strong rope he would tow the car back to his workshop and sort out the problem."
After several years, Colonel Baxter exchanged Clementine for "something more modern" a two-cylinder model produced by the Star Motor Company of Coventry. He purchased that from Childs & Sons, motor engineers in Sherborne.
Colonel Baxter died on 18 May 1917 at the age of 53 in India. In October 1914 he was posted to India commanding 1,000 men of the Dorset Territorials. In 1916 they were posted to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq & Kuwait) where he fell ill before returning to India. Mrs Baxter travelled to India and was with her husband when he passed away. Colonel Baxter's descendants followed him into the army and his great-grandson became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. There is a memorial plaque in Sherborne Abbey on the left of West Door with other Dorset Regiment memorials.