Tributes paid to racing car star
Racing driver and member of the Black Country's Marsh & Baxter pork products empire, Anthony Marsh, has died at the age of 77.
Stourbridge-born Mr Marsh, better known as Tony, was admitted to hospital in his adopted home in Hampshire after suffering breathing complications. He died on May 7.
Members of Hagley and District Car Club today paid tribute to Mr Marsh who was a lifetime member of the club despite moving out the area around 20 years ago.
They said he was a well-known figure in racing, especially for hill climbing, winning the British Hill Climb Championship on a record six occasions.
His wins were divided into two sets of three successive titles.
Mr Marsh climbed the winner's podium in 1955, 1956 and 1957 in a Cooper-JAP. He repeated the success a decade later in 1965, 1966 and 1967.
The later wins were in his own March-GM special which was a V8 engine in a car fitted with four-wheel drive. The design was revolutionary at the time.
He also competed in Formula One and at Le Mans.
Mr Marsh continued to compete in hillclimbs until 2008 but his later years were occupied by a passion for watersports, particularly bobskiing.
He was a member of the Marsh family, who ran the Brierley Hill based Marsh & Baxter company which manufactured pork products and was one of the town's main employers.
Mr Marsh lived at Dunsley Hall, in Kinver, until he left the area to take over a farm in Petersfield, Hampshire. He was married twice and has two sons from his first marriage.
Secretary of the Hagley and District Car Club Dave Parr said Mr Marsh was a very shy man and tended to keep himself to himself.
