Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth

Richard Shuttleworth
Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth
Born	(1909-07-16)16 July 1909 Old Warden, Bedfordshire, England
Died	2 August 1940(1940-08-02) (aged 31) Ewelme, Oxfordshire, England
Occupation	Aviator Racing driver

Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth (16 July 1909–2 August 1940) was a racing motorist, aviator and prolific collector of veteran cars and aircraft. His collection forms the nucleus of the Shuttleworth Collection. He was killed in an air crash on an RAF training exercise in 1940.

Richard Shuttleworth was the only son of Colonel Frank Shuttleworth (1845-1913) and Dorothy Clotilda (née Lang, 1879-1968), the youngest daughter of the Rev. Robert Lang, the Vicar of Old Warden: they had married in 1902. Richard Shuttleworth was the grandson of Joseph Shuttleworth (1819-1883), co-founder of Clayton & Shuttleworth. After her husband's death Dorothy Clotilda Shuttleworth remarried in 1914, her second husband being Brigadier-General William McLaren Campbell (1864-1924) and she had a daughter by him, Anne Elspeth Campbell (1917-1986). Anne Campbell married H.S.H. Alexander Georg Maria Ignatius von Croy (1912-2002) in 1938 (they divorced in 1968) and they had three children.

Richard Shuttleworth was born at Old Warden Park in 1909; his father Frank Shuttleworth died when he was just 2 years old, and his mother Dorothy Shuttleworth brought him up to be ready to take over his inheritance, which he did in 1932 when he was 23. He was fascinated from an early age with any mechanical object, and this interest lead to the nucleus of the present Shuttleworth Collection, housed on his former estate. His interest in the family estate lead to him being elected President of the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society in 1935.

He was educated at Eton College, where he was 'just' accepted in 1922. He did not excel academically except in Eton's School of Mechanics, and on leaving the college he attained the necessary qualifications through a "crammer" to join the Army. After passing out at Sandhurst he joined the 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers. A keen and accomplished horseman, between 1927 and 1932 he rode in the Oakley Club's Hunt, various point-to-points, hurdles, steeplechases and in 1931 won the Subalterns Cup. On attaining his inheritance in 1932 he left the Army hoping to join the Royal Air Force, but was considered to be too old.