The son of the founder of LEC Refrigeration, David Charles Purley was born in Bognor Regis on 26th January 1945. Educated at Dartington Hall School, Devon, he trained at Sandhurst as a member of Intake 38. One fellow cadet remembers him arriving on the first day, traditionally known as Ironing Board Sunday, in a Rolls-Royce. Commissioned into the Parachute Regiment, he lost the first of his nine lives when his parachute failed to open on a training jump. Miraculously, he landed on his platoon sergeant’s ‘chute and both survived the heavy landing. Having seen action with his battalion in Aden, where he earned the nickname ‘Brave Dave’, he left the army to pursue a career in motor racing. Driving a hired car emblazoned with the logo of his father’s company, Purley competed in seven Formula One Grands Prix, with a best finish of ninth at Monza in 1973. By no means a ‘rich kid’ racer, he had genuine talent and, during this race, beat two past and two future world champions.

In the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, fellow British rookie driver Roger Williamson, in only his second Grand Prix, crashed and Purley abandoned his own race and attempted to free Williamson from the blazing, overturned car. The marshals and police in the area did not have fireproof clothing and Purley was unable to right the car himself. No other drivers stopped, most believing that Purley was fighting the fire on his own car, although future world champion Niki Lauda later said: ‘I’m paid to race – not stop’. Purley was awarded the George Medal for his gallant, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to save Williamson’s life.

Moving to the lower formulas for a period, Purley formed his own team, in a car specially designed for LEC, and returned to Formula One in 1977. He finished 13th in the Belgian Grand Prix and 14th in Sweden; however, his Formula One career ended when he suffered severe leg injuries during practice for the 1977 British Grand Prix. In using up another life, Purley, at the time, held the unenviable world record of surviving the highest g-force ever recorded, decelerating from 108 mph to zero in 26 inches. Undeterred, he took to aerobatics but was killed when his Pitts Special biplane crashed into the sea off Bognor Regis in July 1985. A memorial to Purley was erected in 2017, on the cliff overlooking the site and bears the inscription: ‘Gone now your eager smile, high held head and soldier’s stride, etched were skies by your elegant style, and this earth enriched by you pride’.

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