Animal lover leaves £450,000 of classic cars to charity

A civil engineer and animal lover from St. Austell, Cornwall, left a car collection worth £450,000 to the RSPCA.

Brinley "Brin" Edwards died in December 2017, aged 82. He'd supported the RSPCA for many years and had a passion for cars, particularly Italian ones. Edwards had also previously been chairman of the Lancia Motor Club, and had owned some of the cars for more than 50 years.

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Edward's collection included 10 Lancias, from a 1935 Belna saloon up to a 1992 Y10 hatchback that he used as his daily driver until 2015. Other highlights include a Hawk replica of the Lancia Stratos, a 1984 Beta VX Coupe and a 1972 Fulvia HF1600.

The Edwards Collection went up for auction as part of a sale by Bonhams at the Goodwood 76th Members' Meeting. Prices ranged from just £747 for an unregistered Ardea to £158,300 for his 1956 Aurelia B24 Convertible. In total, the 14 cars raised £460,959.

Rob Hubbard, motor car specialist at Bonhams Auctioneers, said: "We were thrilled to be able to achieve such a good price for this collection. It was an impressively broad range of Lancias and displayed the true passion that Brin Edwards had for the Italian marque.

"We were delighted that every car in the collection found a new owner and that proceeds are going to support such a worthy cause close to Mr Edward's heart."

Sally Cornish, RSPCA's head of fundraising, said: "As an RSPCA supporter and cat-lover, Mr. Edwards left the classic cars to us as part of his estate so that we can continue to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome animals in desperate need of care.

"The majority of our funding comes from legacies. This is a very generous gift for the RSPCA for which we are incredibly grateful to the late Mr. Edwards."

By Andrew Evans