Dr Roger King Takes Up Heritage Appointment at Federation

Published: 13/06/2018

The Board of The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (The Federation), the organisation that protects the rights of its members to use their historic vehicles on the highway, is pleased to announce that Dr Roger King has accepted an appointment as Heritage Manager on its Heritage Team. Dr King will have special responsibilities for developing relationships with the wider Heritage movement, in particular The Heritage Alliance, the Mobile Heritage Advocacy Group and other groups engaged in promoting historic vehicles and their heritage value.

The Federation sees Dr King’s appointment as an important step in its strategic objective to raise the heritage profile of historic vehicles. Chairman, David Whale commented,” A vital element in ensuring our members retain their access rights to the highway is building awareness of legislators and parliamentarians of the heritage value of historic vehicles before they draft legislation that will consign them to museums. So often we are fighting rearguard actions where legislation has already been drafted. We need those drafting bills to be aware of the unintended consequences that can arise if historic vehicles are simply lumped into legislation with more contemporary vehicles.”

Until his recent retirement Dr King was a prominent dental surgeon and has experience of the corridors of power as Regional Dental Adviser to NHS England. On his retirement from Dental Practice he decided to pursue a lifelong interest in history and gained a MPhil at Cambridge progressing thereafter to a Doctorate. He has published several books including the definitive history of dentistry and a history of the NHS. While at Cambridge he was veteran members’ secretary of the Cambridge University Automobile Club and has written several marque history articles for various journals.

Roger is a ‘proper’ old car enthusiast. A self- taught engineer, he has personally restored from wrecks a host of interesting models including, Series ll Land Rover, ’68 Mini Cooper S, ’68 Mustang Fastback, and somewhere in a lock-up he has a 2 CV Van awaiting major surgery if only he could recall where he left it! His latest acquisition is a rather sad ’55 XK 140 SE DHC. 

Commenting on his new challenge Roger said, “I am very proud to be joining a dedicated volunteer team that is fighting for the rights of historic vehicle owners nationally. It will be a fascinating and worthwhile challenge.””