Master Modeller, Precision Engineer, Artist and Inventor
Left to right: Lotus Ford, Repco-Brabham, Moss's Cooper and Lotus, and Delahaye with Henri in workshop
as they appeared in Sunday Telegraph Supplement article
His Life and Cars
including the truth about how he invented and patented model-car slot-racing and rail-racing
Note: It may seem unreal but this treatise only covers about a fifth of Henri's work. Much of it was not documented while the modelling business was undergoing its early development, his work-rate was prodigious but never-the-less he was fastidious to the extreme at all times.
above left; the all-silver 1907 Rolls Royce chassis ordered by Sir Stirling Moss
above right, the Full-size 1934 James Young Roech Talbot 105 Coupe rebuilt during early 1970s by Henri. This photograph was taken after the car was bought by Beaulieu Motor Museum.
Note from the author:
When I started assembling the photos, cuttings and magazine articles about Henri for my family, I really did not realise how much there was to do or how long it would take, or how many models Henri had built. It has taken three years of my spare time, including the research needed to eradicate mistakes, and to get the facts as right as was possible. I am indebted to those who have helped me in my task, including my sister Muriel who kept a considerable part of the 'evidence' to pass on to her two sons. I apologise to trans-Atlantic readers for the use of some non-American spellings. I have changed units to help sometimes, but the international scene is in a mess with all the imperial and metric units at the time of writing. I have also inserted jargon names equivalents where I can. I would be pleased if any of our American friends would keep me up-to-date. Of course the Internet has provided an opportunity for us to share information between those with special interests, so a web-site seemed to be the obvious way to broadcast the story of this considerably talented artist with all the necessary images, as, 'they speak a thousand words'. I also apologise to those who originally provided some of the text and photographs, I will try to contact as many as possible and obtain their permission where they are still living. I was Henri's only son, my name is Raymond, usually called Ray, feel free to e-mail me if you have justifiable complaints about anything used in telling the story. I was taught by Henri that perfection is not achievable by man alone, but excellence should be pursued by all, and I am still striving for that and usually have fallen short of the target.
I have checked the suitability of some web-browsers including MS Internet Explorer 6 and/or 7, Mozilla, and the Firefox series, the main ones in use, but any troubles you experience should be sorted out if you let me know. In time, I hope to cover other browsers. For most of the text I have used a font that is easy to read, but you might like to alter your browser-settings to suit yourselves, and I have used Windows standard hyper-link colours almost everywhere on the site. Don't forget, in IE7 one can use the enlarger function down in the lower-right of panel.
I am deeply grateful to my two sons, Colin and Stephen, for their encouragement, who thought the whole project would be rubbish, bless them! They did not know about Henri as they were too young when he died, but they know now just how talented their grandfather was. I hope this will give them the opportunity to see one or two of Henri's exceptional models in real life.
