Memories of Lanchester concerning his physique, personality ('he could be very patient in giving instructions, but merciless if they were forgotten or digregarded, and he did not suffer fools gladly'). He also always carried a small notebook 'and would write down in a scrawling hand all sorts of notes...there ere scores of these books at his flat'. Milligan also recalls that Lanchester made lightning decisions on what seemed difficult matters, and was also a good linguist (being praised for his good French and German). He was also fond of music and painting and was at one time a consultiing engineer for the Pianola Company. He was also an excellent craftsman and 'though his writing was not readily legible, his lettering of drawings was very good.' Lanchester once told him that few men did any really creative work after 40 or 45 years of age, and Milligan thought that was the case with Lanchester ('all his most brilliant thinking was done before 1914').
Milligan also describes some 'Lancheste stories' including:
him working out how to get back money from the telephone company after he thought he had been overcharged;
working out how to increase lighting at the Lanchester works by using reflectors coated with calcium sulphide (he had noticed that sulphuretted hydrogen in the canal behind the works acted on some fresh whitewash in the works to make the lamps produce a steadier light);
replying to a question about BSA [Birmingham Small Arms] or Daimler making small cars by noting the fundamental difficulty in the design and manufacture of small cars being that people who rode in them were the same size and shape as those who rode in large cars;
designing a new lighter bus at short notice (after having recently started work at Daimler as Consulting Engineer);
the story of when Lanchester was prosecuted for speeding - he knew that the policeman who claimed he saw him had mistaken him for another car so Fred and his two brothers George and Frank all dressed alike when they appeared in court to confuse the policeman and create doubt as to who was the driver;
Lanchester designing a biplane built by Daimler in 1909 to be flown by White & Thompson and tested on Bognor sands - but the project being abandoned because Thompson was far more interested in the wife of a famous actor who lived there and abandoning the project;
Lanchester inventing a self-starter for gas engines which was very profitable and helped Lanchester set up the Lanchester Company;
Lanchester having problems with using a dictaphone at Daimler because of his lisp;
Lanchester making a hand-turned recording accelerometer in 1909 - he later made one driven by clockwork (which was later in the Institution of Mechanical Engineers) and that type of machine was later used for submarine navigation under the North Pole.
The notes were sent to Eric Baxter, Lanchester College of Technology. Includes covering letter.