Kings and Cars Part 2 - Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Should add that the PoW’s first car ride was February 1896, when he attended an Imperial Institute exhibition: “The Prince of Wales paid a visit yesterday morning to the Imperial Institute, and was there received by the Hon. Evelyn Ellis, Mr. Frederick R. Simms (Vice-Presidents of the Motor Car Club), Sir Frederick Abel, Sir Somers Vine, and Major-General Ellis. His Royal Highness inspected the motor carriages and personally tested their capabilities by riding in them at various rates of speed and on steep grades.” His ride in a Daimler License-engined Panhard-Levassor he thought frighteningly fast. After that the he was due to open another international Motor Car Club exhibition of automobiles and flying machines at the Imperial Institute, of which he was President, on 9th May 1896.

Possibly his most intrepid ride was one reported by the Daily Mail that he took in Paris on Tuesday 13th April 1897: PRINCE OF WALES IN A MOTOR CAR. - The Prince of Wales indulged in a jaunt in an automobile car on Tuesday along the Champs Elysées and the banks of the Seine. He was piloted by M. Réne De Knyff, who is an expert automobilist, and accompanied by the Prince's aide-do-camp. The presence of the Prince in the Champs Elysées in this somewhat unusual vehicle was observed by very few”.

Some pilot: De Knyff became a famous racing driver subsequently!

The Pall Mall Gazette first reported HRH the Prince of Wales hands-on with motor vehicles in the British Embassy gardens in Paris in March 1896, where at his request the Comte de Dion brought three petroleum cycles of the latest construction. The Prince was said to “take the greatest interest in automobile locomotion, and examined the machines with the critical attention of an expert.”

The South London Press reported, January 1897: “M. Pierre Lafitte, a writer for the Paris paper La Presse, states that the Prince of Wales has just ordered a motor omnibus from a French firm. It will first be tried in the Bois de Boulogne, under the auspices of the Paris Automobile Club, before being sent to London”. Did he really?

It was widely reported he missed an opportunity to ride in an automobile whilst abroad in 1897, when he was due to travel with millionaire Mr. Menier near Cannes in March but had to decline at the last minute, which was fortunate because the car broke its front axle and crashed at Juan Des Puis, seriously injuring Menier and his engineer.

His Equerry, Sir Arthur Ellis, no doubt encouraged his interest, being a founder member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain in autumn that year and Scott-Montague was not his only motoring mentor...

From syndicated Gazettes February 4th 1899: “The popularity of the automobile has received a great impetus from the appreciation of the Prince of Wales, who was taken out in one by the Earl and Countess of Warwick, and thereby converted to approbation. The Queen, however, is far too conservative to favour adoption, for when a richly-equipped motor-car was offered for her Majesty’s acceptance she would not allow her Controller to add it to the Royal carriages. Lord Carnarvon, says Hearth and Home Magazine, is an enthusiast in the art, and keeps several automobiles at his place near Newbury, Berks. He is one of the founders of the Automobile Club, which already boasts 400 members, amongst whom are the Earls of Galloway, Shrewsbury and Talbot, Lord Templetown, Lord Suffield, Sir Bernhard Samuelson, and Sir Douglas Galton.”

Hence, in July 1899 syndicated Independents reported: "The Prince of Wales will shortly appear in the streets of London in an ‘Automobile.' He has given an order for the construction of a car upon a special plan of his own. He will drive it himself without the assistance of any engineer. The Prince believes firmly in the approaching superiority of England in this branch of industry, and so his 'Automobile' is to be constructed exclusively by an English firm." Presumably this was his Daimler?

He was known as 'Edward the Caresser' from his other interest = yes, you guessed it!