An engineer who designed the Bentley which inspired James Bond’s supercharged car is to be honoured at his former home in Mayfair.
Amherst Villiers was the brains behind the supercharger used on the 4.5 litre ‘Blower Bentley’ in 1929, which despite never winning a major race, broke lap records at both Brooklands and Le Mans.
Two years earlier, he had designed the Napier-Campbell Blue Bird, in which Sir Malcolm Campbell smashed the world land speed record in 1927 with an average speed of 174.88 mph.
A personal friend of James Bond author Ian Fleming, Villiers’ Bentley supercharger design inspired the British spy’s high-powered car in the books Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and Moonraker.
Villiers also helped Fleming design Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the ingenious flying car in his eponymous children’s novel.
Despite his contribution to Bentley, it took a lawsuit to get his name recognised, with ‘Amherst Villiers Mark IV’ nameplates eventually fitted to his superchargers.
Following the war he joined the ‘brain drain’ of scientists to move across the pond to work on the US space programme. He also took up art, with his portraits of both Fleming and racing driver Graham Hill both on display at the National Portrait Gallery.
Villiers married Marietta Nungovich, a hostess known as Maya de Lisle at Princes Row registry office in Mayfair in 1932, and lived at 22 Farm Street until 1938.
He returned to Britain in the 1960s, where he took up consultancy roles for the BRM Grand Prix and Graham Hill’s Embassy Hill Formula 1 teams.
In his book The Man who Supercharged Bond, biographer Paul Kenny wrote: ‘Villiers’ work in the US space programme advanced thinking on gyroscope-based guidance systems, and he played a significant part in determining the optical route to Mars, years before Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon.
‘After studying under Pietro Annigoni in Florence, Villers’ portrait subjects included his great friend Ian Fleming and…Graham Hill. And of course, Villers’ work on the 1962 BRM engine powered Hill to the first of his championships.’
He added: ‘If Villiers had stuck to one discipline, he would be as well-known as Brunel. But that would be to misunderstand him. His success across such a bewildering range of endeavours is what made him great.’
Villiers is to be remembered with a green plaque at his former address at Farm House on Farm Street.
His memorial will join blue plaques dedicated to American actress Gloria Swanson, who lived at No 22 on two occasions in the 1930s and then 1950s, President John F Kennedy, who visited the Tudor-style home in 1961, and honour society member Lady Thelma Furness.
The £3,500 cost of erecting the plaque is to be covered by the building’s owner at no cost to the local authority.
Launched in 1991, Westminster’s green plaque scheme recognises significant people and organisations who have contributed to the city’s heritage.
Separate from the Blue Plaque scheme, the programme has commemorated place synonymous with famous figures and institutions, including Chinatown pioneer Stanley Kwai-Tsun Tse, architect Sir Hugh Casson and the Football Association.
The proposals are subject to approval by Councillor Robert Rigby, the cabinet member for resident services and civic pride.