A small news article from The Times of 19th March, 1935 –
DRIVING LICENCE SUSPENDED FOR LIFE
FREDERICK BRIGHT ROBINSON, 33, engineer, of Oaklands Drive, Weybridge, was at the South-Western Police Court yesterday fined £100 and his licence was suspended for life on charges of driving his car dangerously at Putney while he was under the influence of drink.
In today’s money, that fine of £100 amounts, I think, to about £5000 – not insignificant.
A ban for life might not have been seen as quite so desperate a punishment as today, of course, because in 1935 people were generally rather less dependent on the motor vehicle as a means of getting about.
It’s worth noting, in passing, that Mr. Robinson was permanently stripped of his right to drive a motor vehicle at a time when the prominent cycling lobby groups were campaigning energetically against cycle tracks, arguing that the roads themselves should be made safer by means, amongst others, of more stringent punishments for offending motorists.