Graham Robson

The Standard Motor Club has lost a good friend.

Obituary by Phil Homer

Graham Robson, the country’s leading Motoring writer and prolific author passed away on 6th August. Amongst an astonishing 170 reference books that Graham wrote was “The Book of the Standard Motor Company”, the definitive work, painstakingly researched and lavishly illustrated, as all his works were. All his books were of similarly exceptional quality and Graham became the authoritative source and “go-to” expert on almost every British marque.

Graham, an Oxford graduate, started as a graduate trainee at Jaguar Cars in 1957. Within a couple of years, he joined the Standard Triumph, recruited by Engineering Director, Harry Webster as an engineer. Graham subsequently regarded Harry as his “mentor”. In 1962 he was asked to run the Competitions Department, which he did for 5 years. It was during this period that he became familiar with the history of the Standard Motor Company and the Standard Triumph organisation.

He was recruited to write for “Autocar” and his journalism career took off. He subsequently worked independently, and this resulted in his mass of works, not only books but literally hundreds of magazine feature articles. He encouraged a large number of people into motoring journalism, myself included. He was always keen to swap stories and illustrations on any motoring topic. Even at 85 he was always hard at work on the next project. He could always be relied on to officiate or commentate at gatherings and spoke to Standard Motor Club members on many occasions, principally as an after-dinner speaker and awards presenter at our National Rallies.

Graham never retired and was working until his unfortunate death on 6th August 2021.

The definitive work on the Standard Motor Company and its cars.

ut the page.