John Riseley-Prichard

Who was John Riseley-Prichard?

John Henry Augustin Prichard, later Riseley-Prichard, was a British insurance broker and sometime racing driver.

After getting a taste for motorsport in a road-going Riley, he bought a second-hand Connaught Type A from the Rob Walker Racing Team. Using this vehicle he participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix: the British Grand Prix on 17 July 1954. He spun out of the race, scoring no championship points. In addition to this he competed in a number of non-Championship Formula One and Formula Libre races, including a victory in the 1954 I Cornwall MRC Formula 1 Race.

Riseley-Prichard shared an Aston Martin in the infamous 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans race with a young Tony Brooks, but after the trauma of this event retired from race driving. Later in the same year he let Brooks take the wheel of his Connaught, giving the future Vanwall and Ferrari star his first big break.

Later in life John Riseley-Prichard became the centre of a child pornography scandal, and he emigrated to Thailand. After a lengthy illness he died in Baan Kai Thuan, a remote village approximately 200 km inland of Bangkok.