Sunday 7th May 1933
Henry Birkin, one of the British ‘Bentley Boys’, finished third in the Tripoli Grand Prix in a new 3-litre Maserati. During his pit stop Birkin burnt his arm badly against the hot exhaust pipe while picking up a cigarette lighter. There are different opinions of what then happened. The traditional view is that the wound turned septic. Others said Birkin suffered from a malaria attack. Probably it was a combination of both that proved fatal, as Birkin died at a London nursing home the following month.
