Peter Aitken

22/3/1912 - 4/8/1947

Record updated 14-Apr-08

The son of Lord Beaverbrook he was a Voiturette driver who raced with his own Maserati 6CM and later the Alfa Bimotore which he modified into the Alfa-Aitken. He died in a boating accident when he fell of a yacht.

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Hon. Peter Rudyard Aitken was born in Belgravia, London 1912, the son of Sir William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Lord Beaverbrook the press magnate. Rudyard Kipling was one of his godparents.

He was educated in Westminster School, Westminster, London, and gained the rank of Captain in the service of the Royal Fusiliers. 

He was a Voiturette driver who raced with his own Maserati 6CM during 1937-38.  He bought the Alfa Bimotore from Austin Dobson at the end of 1937. This car had two 2.9 litre engines installed but Aitken deceided to modify it for English racing. He removed the rear engine, transmission and gearbox, and installed an ENV pre-selector gearbox with a new back axle mounted on quarter -elliptic springs.

The car was called the Alfa-Aitken and it was completed in 1939. It featured a new bodyshell however after a few appearances the car was retired due to the war.

In In 1939 he also drove a 3-litre Delage which he had swapped with Gérard for his 6CM 1500 Maserati.

Then he bought Reggie Tongue's ERA-B in August 1938 and raced it in South Africa in 1939.

He fought in the Second World War, where he was wounded.

Aitken died in 1947 in Stockholm, Sweden as a result of injuries sustained in a boating accident when he fell of a yacht.

He had three children Caroline, Timothy and Peter and he is buried in Saint Michaels Church Mickleham, Surrey, England.



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