Look at any supercharger fitted to an original ‘Blower’ Bentley and you should find a small plate identifying it as an ‘Amherst Villiers Mark IV’. Without these industrial-looking contraptions almost cumbersomely bolted onto the 4 ½-litre leviathans, some of Britain's most extraordinary and charismatic sports and racing cars might never have existed. The man behind them was Charles Amherst Villiers and while most now know him for the magic he worked on these Bentleys, they were just a small part of a long career that also encompassed astonishing Rolls-Royces, Formula 1, aeronautics, rocket science and even the worlds of James Bond and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
It was on 9 December 1900 that Charles Amherst Villiers emerged into a world of late-Victorian privilege and affluence. His father, Ernest Amherst Villiers, was a prominent clergyman about to enter politics as a Liberal MP while his mother was the Honourable Elaine Augusta Guest, daughter of wealthy industrialist Baron Wimborne. Through her, he was related to Winston Churchill and the future British prime minister would eventually become godfather to Villiers'son.
At the age of 11, Villiers was sent to Windlesham House school in Brighton where he became fascinated by early aviators using nearby Hove as a makeshift aerodrome. His interest in mechanised transport was also indulged by the chauffeur, who let him try out the family Renault 34/45 as well as his personal FN motorcycle. In 1915, Villiers moved on to Oundle School in Northamptonshire. There, he particularly relished tinkering in the school workshops, including rebuilding a Curtiss OX V8 aircraft engine donated by
