Charles Howard Angas snares former 'royal' vehicle in 1912 to go with his other Rolls-Royces in Adelaide
The No.1524 Rolls Royce bought in 1912 by Charles Howard Angas who converted its body to a smaller coupé de ville brougham. Inset: A J.H. Chinner caricature of Angas and the No.1524 converted Rolls-Royce with chauffeur outside his North Adelaide townhouse in 1913.
The prestige of Charles Howard Angas as head of the Angas family, owning one third of colonial South Australia, was confirmed by the sale of Rolls-Royce No.1524 to him in 1912.
No.1524 appears to have been used as part the English fleet of royal vehicles – part of Rolls-Royce’s still-unfulfilled aim to replace Daimler as the preferred regal vehicle. Charles Angas owned several Rolls-Royce cars, some of them kept in London while he stayed at his Belgrave Square home or for his sons when up at Oxford University.
This made Angas a favoured customer for the No.1524 secondhand royal Rolls Royce. Angas paid for a premium £1,200 for it and he recouped some of that by selling the large limousine body and having a smaller coupé de ville brougham made for him by the Grosvenor Carriage Company. Angas named the new-bodied car The Dreamer, comissioned an enamelled nameplate and had a special art nouveau maiden mascot fitted.
The car was sent to Adelaide in 1913 to be one of a distinguished trio of Rolls-Royces in Brougham Place, North Adelaide, at Angas’s town residence.
Charles Angas, in 1861, and his sister Lilian (1862) were both born in England before being taken to South Australia on the steamer Pera in 1863 by their parents John Howard Angas and his wife Suzanne (nee Collins) and settling at the family estate Collingrove, near Angaston in the Barossa Valley. Charles lived there until 1870, when he was sent to England for schooling.
The family was together in England when Charles's grandfather George Fife Angas died in 1879 at Lindsay Park, the family’s other big estate near Angaston. Charles Angas lived at Lindsay Park after he married Elizabeth Etty Dean, daughter of William Dean of Adelaide, in 1885. Their children were Ronald Fife Angas, Dudley Theyer Angas, (John) Keith Angas and Dorothy Beryl Angas.
After his granfather's death, Charles Angas took on a bigger role in managing the family's huge property interests. He followed his father John as a successful breeder of merino and Lincoln sheep, Hackney ponies and shorthorn cattle. Charles Angas's business interests included being chairman of the Willowie Land and Pastoral Association and South Australian Portland Cement Company.
Angas was a prominent member of the Royal Agricultural Society. He was on Adelaide Children's Hospital board, and followed his father and grandfather as a generous financial supporter. After its president Samuel Way died, he held the position for 10 years. He held offices with the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and was a generous supporter.
Angas was well known as a breeder of polo ponies and regular exhibited horses at the Adelaide Show. He was a regular judge of horses and other stock in the eastern states. He was interested in yachting and also followed cricket, donating the clock above Adelaide Oval scoreboard.
He also loved coursing and was a noted judge and breeder of greyhounds. His attended most Waterloo Cup meetings and was a vicepatron of the South Australian Coursing Club. He also was patron of Adelaide Plumpton Coursing Club. Among his dogs were Curio and Wharminda, bought for 75 guineas and one of the fastest in Australia.
Charles Howard Angas died in 1928. (His No.1524 vehicle was taken over and preserved by sculptor Charles Wright, best known as the leader of the campaign to save Edmund Wright House former bank building, in King William Street, Adelaide, from destruction in the 1970s.)
