Bill Boddy
British motorsport journalist (1913-2011)
William Boddy, (22 February 1913 – 7 July 2011) was a British journalist who was the editor of Motor Sport from 1936 to 1991. After 1991 he still contributed regularly to Motor Sport magazine, continuing a career that lasted eighty-one years. He also co-founded the Vintage Sports Car Club, and founded the Brooklands Society in 1967 among numerous contributions to the emerging vintage car scene. At his death he was considered the longest-serving journalist in the UK, having submitted his first article in 1930 and his last one just a week before his death.
Early years and racing career
Boddy was born in Wandsworth, London in 1913, to a Welsh mother and an English father who would shortly be killed in World War I. He became interested in cars from an early age and began to build up an encyclopaedic knowledge of motoring, leaving school in 1928 and immersing himself in automotive publications and the Brooklands racing scene.
In tandem with his journalistic work, Boddy drove the original HRG 1,497 cc (91.4 cu in) sports car at the Lewes Speed Trials on 4 September 1937 with a best time of 27.4 sec, finishing third in the novices class. Boddy entered his Lancia at the Prescott opening rally on 10 April 1938; his 1924 Aston Martin being commended by the judges in the Best Kept Car Competition. He also entered the Lancia 1,352 cc (82.5 cu in) at the first Prescott speed hillclimb on 15 May 1938. Boddy was riding as passenger when Sydney Allard won the last speed event to be held in England prior to World War II. Having set the fastest time at the Horndean Speed Trials, their car overturned past the finish line and both occupants were thrown clear and uninjured.
Journalism
Boddy's first published article, in Motor Sport in 1930, was on the history of the Brooklands track, where he had first gone in 1927.
“Bill Boddy” enters the record as british motorsport journalist (1913-2011). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bill, Boddy and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4908181. VIAF identifies the subject as 46757584. The Library of Congress control number is n81043361. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2011, 1936 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Boddy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.