Tony Marsh was one of Britain’s best all-round motor racing drivers, a “privateer” who took on the mighty works teams of his era in Formula 1 and F2 but he is best remembered for his speed event exploits – he won the British Hill Climb Championship six times – three times between 1955 to 1957 and on three further occasions between 1965 to 1967.

Anthony Ernest Marsh was born in Stourbridge in 1931, the son of the businessman who owned the Marsh & Baxter ham and bacon-curing company.

Marsh began competing in hill climbs and trials with a Dellow in the early 1950s.  For the 1952 season he entered special lightweight Mk II Dellow (reg L WP 757) which was fitted with a methanol-burning Ford Ten engine for hill climbs and sprints.   

By 1953 Marsh acquired the ex-Peter Collins Cooper Mk4 which was fitted with a 1260cc V-twin JAP engine.   On his second outing with the car, a sprint meeting, Tony managed to win with a new course record, a feat made all the sweeter since the old record was held by Peter Collins with the same car!  

Towards the end of 1954 a new Cooper Mk 8 was bought and fitted with an 1100cc JAP engine.   In 1955, after a successful season on the hills, Tony tied with Ken Wharton at the top of the RAC British Hill Climb Championship.   This situation presented the RAC with a problem as they had not previously been faced with a drawn championship and so didn’t have a method to decide a tie-break.   After some debate it was decided to award the title to Marsh on the grounds that he had used only one car for the season while Wharton had used his ERA on power climbs like Shelsley Walsh and a supercharged 998 cc Cooper-JAP on twisty hills like Prescott. 

A growing interest in things mechanical saw Tony modify and develop the Cooper JAP during the next season when he again won the 1956 British Hill Climb Championship,  As well as the hill climb car, Tony had bought an F2 Cooper-Climax and he emerged at the end of the year as The Autocar Formula 2 Champion. He won the British Hill Climb Championship again in 1957 with the 1.1 Cooper.

Having gained a· hat-trick of hill climb championships, Tony had little else to prove on the hills and he became a privateer in Formula 2 with a new Cooper.   As a privateer he was able to put on some good displays, picking up top six places.

A switch to a Formula 2 Lotus 18 followed late in 1960 and also that year Tony made his one and only appearance at Le Mans in that year, in a Lotus Elite shared with John Wagstaff which finished 11th and won the Index of Thermal Efficiency.

In 1961 Marsh found that, with a few modifications, his F2 Lotus could become an Formula 1 car and so, in common with other privateers, he made the transition into F1.   At the Belgian Grand Prix Marsh was approached by Raymond May about buying a BRM which could be run with a 2.5-litre BRM engine for hill climbs and Intercontinental Formula races, while a 1.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engine would be fitted for any races run to F1 rules.   The deal meant that Tony would receive “semi-works” recognition which would double his starting money, from a typical £350 to £600, though a percentage would go to BRM.

For the 1961 hillclimb season Marsh mainly entered his 1.5 Lotus 18 Climax and finished runner-up to David Good in the British championship. He did enter his 2.5 BRM at the August Shelsley Walsh meeting breaking the hill record.

The following year a second BRM was bought – uprated to take the V8 BRM engine, Tony paid BRM £7,500 and maintained and entered the car as a privateer except on certain occasions when it would be entered as a works car.   By now though, Marsh became disenchanted with the pressurised and expensive high-level motor sport and again turned his attention to the hills.

For the 1962 hillclimb season Tony Marsh built a fairly crude ’special’, with a 2.5-litre BRM engine. The Marsh-BRM Special had a four-speed gearbox and used Tony’s own chassis and suspension.   It was fitted with Cooper wheels and, though crude, it was effective.   The car took several FTDs and he was were in with an outside chance of the Championship until the car was destroyed at the Rest And Be Thankful hill climb.   The Marsh Special was not rebuilt but the engine was put back into the BRM 48/57 chassis and Tony finished third in the Championship.

In 1963 a new Marsh Special appeared, this was a very small, light car.   Initially it had a supercharged Coventry Climax FPF engine which was later converted to carburettors and enlarged to two litres. when the blower proved difficult to integrate.   With the MKII Marsh Special, Tony finished second in the 1963 British Hill Climb Championship.

Over the winter of 1963/4 Marsh improved the car but others made greater strides and he dropped down a place in the rankings to come home third in the 1964 championship.

A radical re-think was in order and so the chassis was re-worked on more conventional lines, being longer and wider.   Into the back was fitted a 4.2-litre Buick V8 engine, It was light and fast and Championship wins followed in 1965 and ’66.

By 1967 Marsh was starting to lose some of the motivation for hill climbing but nonetheless wanted the third successive Championship victory.  Always an innovator, he came up with a new variable AWD system which was made in consultation with Mike Hewland.   

This system meant that in a straight line there was power to all four wheels but as the car turned into a bend a special ‘sprag’ clutch released so it became a conventional rear-wheel drive car again.   The system worked and Tony secured his second hat-trick of RAC Championship wins.   After the second hat-trick, however, there was nothing else to prove and Marsh quietly retired at the end of 1967.

Away from motorsport, Tony Marsh won the seniors’ trophy at the ski-bob British national championships 13 times from 1975-91, he was often fastest on the course.   He was also a keen pilot and a highly competent yatchsman.   In 1986 he returned to speed events at the wheel of the March-based Rovercraft.   In 1993, his co-driver Simon Law was killed in the car during the Brighton Speed Trials, this a tragedy affected Marsh badly.   He returned with a Toleman TG191 Cosworth DFL, taking the Gurston Down Top Six title that year, aged 62.   He continued to compete in hillclimbs well into his seventies, driving on until 2008.

In 2009 Tony had submitted entries for several events before he was suddenly hospitalised with breathing difficulties.   He died in hospital in Portsmouth in May 2009.