Beetle drive for major

VW enthusiasts who drove from Germany gather to pay respects to the man who saved their car and factory.

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CAR enthusiasts made a 2,000-mile journey to a lonely Saddleworth graveyard to pay homage to the man who saved the VW Beetle from the scrapheap.

They drove from Germany in a collection of classic cars to stand in silence at a small tablet marking the grave of ex-Army major Ivan Hirst, who is buried at St Thomas's Church at Heights, near Delph.

The major, who was born in Greenfield but lived in Marsden for the the last 25 years of his life, would have been 100 this year.

At the end of the Second World War the major, who served in REME, was sent to Wolfsburg in Germany to sort out the bombed remnants of the Volkswagen factory for the British Army.

His objective was to dismantle the production line and prepare it to be shipped out as reparations while running a workshop to repair British Army vehicles. Although the Russians and Americans had reached the battered site first they failed to recognise its potential.

While he was sifting the debris, the bespectacled major discovered an early Beetle and considered it would make ideal transport for Allied troops and believed it could be a commercial success.

But Britain's motor manufacturers shunned the early prototypes, with an official report stating: "It does not reach the fundamental technical requirement of a motor car.

"It is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... to build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise."

However, the major and his superior, Colonel Charles Radclyffe, got one of the rare surviving saloons running and persuaded the Allied management to re-start production.

By the end of 1945, the factory had rolled out more than 20,000 saloons for the occupying American, British and French forces.

The enterprising major set up a sales and service network and arranged for the vehicles to be exported. The first Beetle, as it became known, went to Holland in 1947.

Having handed over the Volkswagen factory to a new trust run by the new West German federal government, he left Wolfsburg in 1949 and was demobbed two years later.

Jane Braithwaite, cousin once removed, who lives near the graveyard at Heights, said: "Ivan was a very unassuming man and would have been deeply touched these VW enthusiasts came so far to celebrate his belief in the car.

"Some were former VW engineers and they said seeing his resting place was the highlight of their trip. It's good to know he's not forgotten."

"Ivan was a very unassuming man and would always be seen with an obligatory pipe in his hand and surrounded by history books. Ivan enjoyed a peaceful life in Marsden. The death of his wife Marjorie in 1992 was a hard blow and a number of years later, when asked what had been the most important factor in his life, his unhesitating answer was: 'A very happy marriage.'"

Jane's husband Paul, a mountaineer, gave a eulogy at the major's funeral in Marsden after he died, aged 84, in 2000. He said: "Ivan's vision and achievements at the VW factory in 1945 have rightfully earned him a place in the illustrious history of Volkswagen."