Tim Birkin

Sir Henry Ralph Stanley "Tim" Birkin, 3rd Baronet (26 July 1896 – 22 June 1933) was a British racing driver, one of the "Bentley Boys" of the 1920s.

Background and family

He was born into a wealthy Nottingham family in 1896. He was the son of Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin, 2nd Bt. and Hon. Margaret Diana Hopetoun Chetwynd. In childhood, Henry Birkin gained the nickname "Tim", after the children's comic book character Tiger Tim, created by Julius Stafford Baker, who was extremely popular at the time. The nickname stuck right up to Birkin's death.

He married Audrey Clara Lilian Latham, daughter of Sir Thomas Paul Latham, 1st Bt. and Florence Clara Walley, on 12 July 1921. They were divorced in 1928.

He and Audrey had two daughters, Pamela and Sara, both of whom married and had issue. The elder daughter Pamela (d. 1983) married two Buxton cousins in succession, and her second husband was the Life Peer Baron Buxton of Alsa, KCVO, MC. She had seven children including wildlife film-maker Cindy Buxton. The younger daughter Sara (d. 1976) married twice, and had two sons by her first husband..

At his death, without sons of his own, in 1933, he was succeeded by his next surviving paternal uncle Sir Alexander Russell Birkin, 3rd Baronet (d. 1942).

His younger brother, Archie Birkin, was killed during practice for the 1927 Isle of Man TT motorcycle races.

Military career

He joined the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and gained...
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