Frederick Lionel Rapson

Frederick Lionel Rapson was born in 1887 in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, the son of a Blacksmith. He married Rose Playle in Walthamstow in 1910 by whom he had a son Freddie born in West Ham in 1911. Up until he joined the army in 1905 he had been a general labourer. His military record shows that he was a clerk in the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and was discharged with the rank of Lance Corporal as medically unfit in September 1907. He was described as 5ft 9", fair with blue grey eyes and light brown hair, a "good clerk" and a "well educated and intelligent man". He later claimed that he was Head Driver Mechanic for HRH Princess Louise, Duchesse of Argyle until the outbreak of WWI when he signed up at Aldershot for the Army Service Corps Motor Transport Depot with the rank of acting Sergeant. At this time he was living at 20 Aldernay Street in London. He served briefly in France as driver for the King's Messenger but was injured and hospitalised to Woolwich. His own accounts of his injuries are contradictory. He initially stated that he had received a blow from a rifle butt that had rendered him unconscious, but he later claimed that he suffered from concussion as a result of the noise from heavy artilliery. The former account is the most plausible as his death certificate shows that he died of epilepsy resulting from a skull fracture received in 1915. For a while Rapson stayed on as a Drill instructor, but then at his request was discharged to enable him to join the Mechanical Transport Division of the Union Defence Force in South Africa. He set sail for the Cape on 20th May 1915, but was invalided back to England aboard the Llansteffan Castle in July of the same year suffering from fits induced by the hot climate. He was transferred to Arrowe Hall Military Hospital to recover and it was while he was there that his association with Miss Schintz began. While he was recovering he volunteered as a Red Cross worker at the hospital. Miss Schintz claims to have taken him on to entertain the injured soldiers, but she also seems to have taken him on as a chauffeur as his address from Sept 1916 was The Garage, Childwall Hall, Miss Schintz's family home. He was a skilled engineer and keen inventor and by 1917 articles appeared in The Autocar showing his inventions which included dipping headlights and automatic car jacks. By 1919 he appears to have had a team of men working under him on a fleet of cars at Childwall Hall. A biographical article written in 1926 claimed he was kind, quick-thinking and generous, a gifted musician and first class athlete.

Rapson quickly won Miss Schintz's good favour and he eventually became her personal secretary. He accompanied Miss Schintz to Ottershaw Park where he lived in a suite of apartments in the Mansion and had workshops in The Bothy. He maintained a fleet of cars including a Lanchester, Rolls-Royce, Napier and Daimler which were kept in the Bothy garage and frequently featured in articles in motoring journals. They were always reported in the press as belonging to Rapson but in reality they were probably the property of Miss Schintz. Rapson equipped these cars with his own high endurance tyres and frequently appeared at Brooklands and other racing venues. In 1924 it was claimed that over 50 world records were broken using cars fitted with Rapson types.

In 1919 the Rapson Automobile Patents Ltd company had been formed to acquire Rapson's inventions. When Rapson invented a high performance tyre he set up the Rapson Tyre and Jack Co. in New Malden in January 1922 to manufacture and distribute them. Rapson's advertisements proudly displayed "By appointment to the King" and "By appointment to The Prince of Wales". The company had no working capital and for the provision of funds depended mainly on Miss Schintz. For a while Rapson's tyre sold well, demand often outstripping production but by October 1922 the company was already in financial difficulties. This was the first of a number of companies that Mr Rapson was to set up. In 1923 "Rapson Tyre Company (of Europe) Ltd" was promoted but failed from the outset. The sales of tyres dropped off and the Malden factory closed in 1925, and from January 1926 when Rapson became ill and withdrew temporarily from business life. An agreement was reached with the North British Rubber Co. Ltd to manufacture and distribute his tyres.


Arrowe Hall Auxiliary Hospital where Miss Schintz first met Frederick Rapson

Advertisement for Rapson's tyres and his factory in Stanley, Tasmania

From September that year Rapson acquired the manufacturing and distribution rights in Australasia through the Rapson Tyre and Rubber Co. (Australia) Ltd. in Tasmania, but this collapsed in December 1930. Back in the UK in November the sale of tyres was taken over by F Lionel Rapson Ltd. a company virtually owned by Miss Schintz. Later she seems to have withdrawn her financial support for this venture and sales returned to the North British Rubber Co. once again. Eventually the company failed and was wound up in June 1931. Rapson blamed intense competition, insufficient working capital, mismanagement and inexperience on his own part, and that expected royalities from sales by North British Rubber had failed to materialise. He also claimed that the factory had to be re-equipped on more than one occasion to keep pace with developments in the industry. Others listed extravagant equipment and advertising together with the unsettled state of the rubber market in the last year of the company's trading as contributory causes.

Rapson again hit he motoring headlines in 1928 when, with the assistance of his son Freddie, he broke a non-stop motoring distance record of 50,000 miles at the Miramas track near Marseilles that year. By this time he appears to have left Ottershaw for Eastbourne where by 1932 his business address was 4 Lascelles Mansions and he described himself as a Consulting Engineer. In 1933 he died there of epilepsy aged 43 and his home address was given as 97 Victoria Drive.