Bill Boddy

IT WAS A constant source of bewilderment during press week. Scroll back a few decades or so and Motor Sport magazine was a hive of activity at the best of times, but the last few days before an issue went to press were always intense. It was at this juncture that the fax machine would whirr into life and sheets of raw copy would be spat out, all of which had 'PTO' scribbled at their base. None of this made much sense given that the reverse side of each page was obviously blank. It then fell to the office factotum to transcribe everything onto a computation device so that they could be put onto a server and edited.

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Not that you were ever allowed to edit Bill Boddy's copy, you understand. He may - may - have allowed a comma to be inserted, or perhaps even removed, but mostly he would insist that his text was committed to print intact. And repeat. Even in his tenth decade, and living in Llandrindod Wells, his presence loomed large despite his physical absence.

Universally known as 'WB' to his followers, or The Bod to his colleagues, William Charles Boddy edited Motor Sport for 55 years. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't the founding editor; he was 11 years old when it was launched. He merely took the helm in 1936 and remained there until 1991.

Boddy even sustained publication during World War Two, despite the absence of motor racing - and serving with the Ministry for Aircraft Production at Farnborough. His influence stretched beyond just the one title, though. Boddy had an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things car-related, his interest having been developed at an early age. He was born in Wandsworth, London, in 1913 and his father died during World War One, so it fell to his Welsh-born mother to raise him alone. He was a prolific writer of letters to the fledgling The Autocar and Motor Sport in his youth, often correcting mistakes.