#8832, John Aiden Hastings GOTT

John Gott, who was the only son of Rev. J A Gott and Mrs Gott of St. Albans, Chief Constable of Northamptonshire, and an international rally driver, was killed on the Lydden Hill motor racing circuit near Dover, Kent, on 3rd September 1972.  He was 58.

Gott had competed in many international motor rallies and races since the 1950s in Fraser Nash and Austin Healey cars.  He was leader of the BMC rally team from its formation in 1955 until his resignation in 1961.  Although often competing in recent years against drivers at least 25 years his junior, Gott was a frequent winner.  Last year he won a major British sports car championship in his Austin Healey.  Earlier last year he won two races at an MC Car Club meeting at Brands Hatch in his 1964 Austin Healey.

Gott was vice-chairman of the Royal Automobile Club competitions committee; and president of the British Motor Racing Marshalls Club.  He was active in the organization of motor sports events including international rallies.

His appointment in 1960 as Chief Constable of Northamptonshire made him one of the youngest chief constables in the country.  He was very concerned with road safety and his enlightened views were making a contribution towards reducing the accident toll.  One of the longest stretches of the M1 ran through his area and he was responsible for devising a special "rat trap" along the motorway in his fight against hijackers and criminals fleeing along the motorway.  A few years ago he urged the raising of the motorway speed limit from 70 mph to 80 mph and the introduction of a 40 mph minimum.  In January this year he criticised the magistrates who looked for technical loopholes in the breath test which would help defendants.

John Adrian Hastings Gott was born in 1913, and educated at Radley and Hertford College, Oxford, where he took a degree in history and was captain of boats.  He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1937; and was awarded the George Medal in 1941 for rescue work during an air raid on London's East End.  During the Second World War he was seconded to the Royal Air Force.  He was commissioned as a navigator on Lancaster bombers, and took part in attacks on dams, canals and warships.  Gott was awarded the OBE (mil) for rescuing the crew of a blazing RAF aeroplane during the war.  In 1946 he transferred to the Hertfordshire Constabulary and was appointed chisf superintendent in 1951.  He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 1966.  He married in 1943 Susan Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Canon G H C Shorting, and they had one son.

1973 Hertford College magazine, courtesy of The Times.