£1.1m classic car collection auctioned for RNLI

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is set to benefit from the sale of a collection of classic cars from the late banker Robert Furniss Riding.

The 15 cars – headed by a selection of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys – were offered for sale ‘without reserve’ by H&H Classics at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, racking up a total of £1.1m.

The collection spans various decades of the twentieth century, with the oldest being a 1924 Bentley 3 Litre Vanden Plas Tourer which sold for £140,000.

Helen Hopkins, head of legacies at the RNLI, says: “We are incredibly grateful to the late Robert Furniss Riding for naming the RNLI as one of the beneficiaries of his estate, along with many other beneficiaries.

“The sale of the classic car collection will form a part of the donation as the RNLI is the residuary beneficiary, so we’re very grateful to see it raise so much money.

“Six in ten lifeboat launches are only possible due to gifts in wills. Any gift left to the RNLI, large or small, makes a huge difference.”

Born in 1940 as an only child, Riding was educated at Stockport Grammar School and then studied natural sciences at Christ Church, Oxford. He joined William Deacon’s Bank and made a rapid ascent through it and its subsequent iterations, ending up as Group Treasurer of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Riding was a passionate sailor during his time in the City, but on retiring to the Isle of Man, he switched his focus to collecting cars, and he had to move to a large country house to find garaging for the ever-growing collection.

Paul Cheetham, who consigned the collection for H&H Classics, says: “This fabulous selection is evidence of Bob Riding’s wide-ranging taste in classic cars.

“It is a marvellous cross-section of some of the best of the last century’s most sought-after cars, and their sale will benefit one of Britain’s most beloved institutions, the RNLI.”