 John Habin |
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John Habin was born on 5th April
1915 at Chidham, West Sussex, the eldest of three children of Charles, a farmer and later
a grey hound trainer, and Caroline. His
parents named him John Dixon Jellicoe Habin, the Jellioce being named after Admiral John
Jellicoe, who was born in Southampton and found fame in World War One as the admiral who
led the British Navy at the Battle of Jutland. He
never used this Christian name and most knew him as John Habin or ‘JD’ or
‘Dad’ to his immediate family. He was brought up on his parents’ farm in
Chidham and went to school at Hurstpierpoint College, near Hassocks in West Sussex. He left Hurstpierpoint College at the age of 14
years, amid suggestions from his headmaster, the Reverend H. Bernard Towers, according to
his recollection, that he would never amount to anything. His first job was driving
lorries dumping earth from the construction of new roads, a lot of which he sold instead
of dumping! Many husbands arrived home to a
heap of gravel in their drives and the lorry company always found it rather odd that his
tyres seemed to be wearing out more than the others in the fleet. Thankfully, there were
no diving tests then. |
John Habin 1915 - 2005
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He then joined Vickers Supermarine
in Woolston on a five year toolmakers apprenticeship and qualified as an engineer at a
time when the company built several well known
flying boats including the Southampton, Seagull, and, probably the best known, the Walrus. In
his early twenties, he entered the motor trade, firstly in Warren Street, London, and then
in Southampton. In 1934, he started grass track motor cycle racing and won his first
novices race on 25th July and went on win the Southern speedway grass track
championship. He learnt to fly with the Civil Air Guard in 1937 but, when war broke out,
as a reserved occupation, he went back to Vickers and became a highly respected production
engineering instructor, spending much of his time at Dibbens steel yard in Northam, the
factory at Woolston having been destroyed during heavy bombing raids on 26 September 1940. He taught those left behind to manufacture parts
for aircraft, MTB’s, mortars and Bailey bridges and initiated a network of
individuals in southern England to manufacture firing pins.
By the end of the war he was responsible for the quality control and output
of five factories. During the war, he also managed to run two taxi or mini cab businesses,
one in Southampton and another in Sussex; both
fleets were identical, even down to the number plates! Most
of his taxi drivers were American servicemen. In
1945 he had to dispose of one so he had to dismantle the Sussex fleet; he said that was a very sad day! In 1940, at the
age of 25 years, he married Dorothy and two years later Michael was born at Netley Marsh,
near Cadnam. |
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Following
the war, he continued in the car trade and also ran the remaining mini cab fleet in Southampton,
known as Clifford Cabs. He also established an
aircraft sales business known as Southampton Air Services, operating out of Eastleigh
Airport,
which bought and sold war surplus aircraft for either scrap or the fuel they had in them. Some aircraft he also used in the immediate post war
years, buying them from such far flung places as Nigeria
in Africa;
this was his first venture into the aircraft charter business. It was during these
ventures that he was asked to supply radiators to the Middle
East
for the cold nights; supply was short so he
decided to design and make some. With the
backing of an Arab sheikh, whom he only ever referred to as ‘Fred’, and some
colleagues, a company that is a household name today was born, Dimplex.
He
never lost his love of grass track motor racing, obtaining many placings and again winning
the novices race on 29th
June 1947.
By 1949, he had moved away from grass track racing and decided to race motor cars. He raced 500cc Formula 3 cars and joined the Cooper team. He
also drove the JBS Norton and the Leston Special. |
John in the Staride at Brands Hatch in 1952.
Photo courtesy of the Habin family.
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In
conjunction with Mike Erskine, who had been successful in speedway and had a factory in Southampton
making car radiators and had branched out into making speedway bike frames, he developed
the Erskine Staride racing car, which he first drove
at Goodwood in April 1952. On 23rd
September 1951,
he won the Brands Hatch Open Challenge in a JBS Norton. On 6th
October 1951,
at Castle Combe, whilst driving a Staride Norton, he crashed, rolled the car several
times, broke his jaw in four places and lost his teeth.
Notwithstanding this, he continued to race, partly in Formula 3 and then in
Formula Libre, an open class, in which he drove the Maserati 4CLT
for Fred Tuck and also instigated the Revis 1500 with Reg
Bicknell, travelling to Germany to bring back a 1500cc Hansa-Borgward “Renn”
race engine. He gained many placings in the English and European circuits and, in a report
of the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in 1952, whilst driving a Leston-Norton, the
following appeared:- “By now a very serious dice was taking place between John Habin
and Bill Whitehouse for third position, but on the 9th
lap, Whitehouse’s car struck Habin’s as he was about to pass him on the incline
behind the pits (Habin had missed a gear and the car momentarily slowed) and went nose
over tail three times. The crash looked really
serious but Bill was walking about the paddock about an hour later liberally covered with
bandages and showing everyone his crash hat (the same one he wore in the Snetterton crash)
in which road abrasion had worn a hole! Moss went on to win with
Wicken never far behind. John Habin was third, as last year. He says he is now known as the ‘Third
Man’ in Holland.”
All this in the days of such drivers as Stirling Moss, John Cooper,
Mike Hawthorn and his very good friend, Peter Collins, who died
so young, like so many others in the racing world.
He was elected a member of the
British Racing Drivers Club during this time, a membership he proudly maintained for over
50 years, always wearing his BRDC lapel badge, and for which he received a commendation
from the BRDC just a few years ago.
He
stopped racing in 1955, partly due to another bad racing accident and partly, no doubt,
due to some encouragement on the part of his later wife and life long partner, Peggy, with
whom he had had a second son, Geoffrey, on 17th December 1953. A third son, Simon, followed on 9th
September 1957.
Throughout this period, he continued to earn his living in the car trade, operating a
successful motor sales business known as Clifford Sales in Southampton
and also became involved in property development. He
also set up a haulage business running a fleet of refrigerated lorries transporting frozen
foods known as Habin (Haulage) Limited. The haulage company was, during the early sixties,
also used for transporting fruit machines all over the country for what can only referred
to as a ‘certain organisation’, as they were certainly an illegal commodity in
those days! It was not an uncommon event for
his garage to be filled with fruit machines and for some ‘interesting’ people to
descend upon the family home in Chilworth. |
John at Brands Hatch in 1952, note the two very trusting gentlemen
by the side of the track. Photo courtesy John Furlong.
In
1964, whilst he was the director of the Hampshire Aeroplane Club Limited, he was
responsible for building several replicas of the First World War Avro Triplane IV, which
were flown by the actor, Terry Thomas, in the film “Those Magnificent Men in their
Flying Machines”. Three replicas were
built at his hanger at Eastleigh
Airport
with the assistance of Peter Hillwood and design drawings prepared by Ray Hilbourne, and
they all flew beautifully. You may recall that
one came to a sad end flying under a bridge in the film.
What in fact happened was that the film crew came into the hanger and hacked
the wings off to simulate the crash; he was
there at the time and was furious for days. One
surviving replica forms part of the Shuttleworth Collection in England
and another, we believe, hangs in the Smithsonian in Washington. He was also responsible for constructing a replica
of the First World War German ‘Pfalz D.III’
aircraft for the film “The Blue Max”, this time with the assistance of Viv
Bellamy and again from design drawings prepared by Ray Hilbourne. During 1966, he decided
to retire and in 1967 piloted his own plane to Jersey
with Peggy, Geoffrey and Simon. Michael, who
had by this time also joined the family car business, stayed in Southampton
and managed Clifford Sales. The retirement was, however, short lived – apparently
around four days! At first, he started buying
cars and shipping them back to Southampton
but, in 1971, the opportunity arose to buy the garage group known as St. Helier Garages,
which comprised three garages in Bath
Street,
Don
Road
and First
Tower
in Jersey,
a garage in St.
Peter
Port
in Guernsey
and a shed selling tractor parts in Sark. A new era had begun.
Whilst
continuing to operate the garage businesses in Bath
Street,
now with the assistance of Geoffrey, and St.
Peter
Port,
with the assistance of Michael, he acquired the air charter business of Aviation Beauport
and undertook various property developments, including Wests Centre. In 1979, at the age
of 64 years, the opportunity came to acquire the failing business of Intra Airways and so
Jersey European Airways, now known as Flybe, was born. Some time later, he retired as
chairman of Jersey European Airways, developed the garage premises at Bath
Street
into office blocks, now known as ‘Britannia
Place’,
and moved the garage business in Jersey
to alternative premises.
In more recent times, the garage business in Jersey was sold, with Geoffrey now
operating a successful motor bike business, and the garage business in Guernsey being
sold, with Michael now in semi retirement. He only stopped flying at the age of 77 and
became and avid wood worker in his workshop at home. In
2001, at the age of 86 years, he decided that he would like to go back to boating, which
was his love many years previously. He went on
a week’s yachting course out of Southampton. When
told that the yacht would not be using the marinas, he asked the rest of the crew to
contribute to the marina fees and then told the skipper that they were going to use the
marinas whether he liked it or not! As ever,
he would only do things in a professional manner and passed the Royal Yachting Association
navigation exams at the age of 87! He still came into the garage on a daily basis to
exercise his true passion in life, which was to sell something to somebody! Throughout his
time in Jersey, many people from all walks of life would contact him, seeking advice,
which he would freely give, although it was not always what they wanted to hear!
John Habin died on 26th March 2005, whilst on holiday in Fish Hoek, South
Africa, with his wife, Peggy, just a few days before his 90th birthday. He was still as active as he ever was, looking for
a new opportunity. Our thanks to John's family for help with this
article.
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