[Don Capps]

Originally posted by D-Type
And does anyone know what DID cause his death? The Brooklands Society web page reproduced above suggests that the commonly accepted "blood poisoning", or septicaemia, from a badly treated burn may not be entirely correct.

Originally posted by strad
From the Brooklands Society site

In 1933 he bought a new Maserati and gained 3rd place in the Tripoli Grand Prix, the story has it, burning his arm on the hot exhaust pipe during practice while reaching into the cockpit for his cigarette lighter. He returned to London with his arm bandaged and was admitted to the Countess Carnarvon Nursing Home with septicaemia, generally assumed from the burn.

Dudley Benjafield fought hard to save Birkin’s life and he was recovering until a relapse, dying on June 22nd 1933. Walter Bentley maintained in his autobiography that Brkin’s death was not due to the burn but to a mosquito bite that he had picked up in Tripoli which sparked off septicemia which related back to malaria which he had picked up in Palestine during the First World War. Either way he was killed by blood poisoning prematurely ending the career of one of the best known and most accomplished of British drivers.""

It would now seem that this is perhaps the reality behind Birkin's death. It now seems assured that it was a combination of these two factors -- the burn and the malaria -- which led to his death, not one or the other. I have come to this conclusion after much research and thought after leaning towards the malaria theory for a number of years. After reviewing my notes in light of additional material made available to me by Doug Nye, I think that the Brooklands Society has it right. I think that this should lay to rest at least one part of the myth surrounding the 1933 GP di Tripoli.