24 replies to this topic

[Mistron]

Listening to radio 2 on the way home, Chris Tarrant was interviewing Tiff Needel about his autobiography, (which is apparently out tomorrow) and Tarrent chipped in with "my dad used to race at Brooklands"

Has anyone heard this before?

[Tim Murray]

There's no Tarrant listed in the index of WB's Brooklands history.

[taylov]

Don't know about Brooklands but I recall reading that his father won a Military Cross in France in WW2.

Found him in the London Gazette of 22.3.1945 - Acting Major Basil Avery Tarrant of the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Tony

Edited by taylov, 06 April 2011 - 19:50.

[john winfield]

He would have been quite young. Apparently Basil Tarrant fought on Juno Beach in 1944 aged only 24 which, I assume, means that, if he did race, he did so as a teenager.

[arttidesco]

Are you sure Chris did not say his wife 'Ingrids' father ?

You may phone a friend :-)

[arttidesco]

FH Dupre shown driving a Darraq reg XX 9581 in the 1925 London to Gloucester Trial. You have to scroll down a bit to see the pic.

Not sure if it has been established that FH Dupre is Chris Tarrants wife's father ?

[Geoff E]

Her father was Friedrich W E H DUPRE, born in 1900 in Marylebone.

I believe he appears on the 1901 and 1911 censuses as "Fritz" ... his father, also Fritz was an Iron Merchant born in Germany.

[arttidesco]

2 hours 20 minutes - mystery solved.

I wonder if Chris, Ingrid or Tiff will ever get wind of this ?

Edited to correct timing

Edited by arttidesco, 06 April 2011 - 20:58.

[Geoff E]

The death of a Frederick Henry DUPRE was registered in June 1996 in Barnet District. His date of birth was given as 18 July 1900.

[Mistron]

Are you sure Chris did not say his wife 'Ingrids' father ?

You may phone a friend :-)

Nope, he definately said his father, not father-in-law, but perhaps was 'improving' the story for he listeners?

[RTH]

So we are saying Basil Tarrant would have been 19 when Brooklands closed down for good in 1939. How many people 17-19 would have raced at Brooklands, how would they have paid for it ?
Would teenagers then have to have had very rich fathers paying for them ? Does this apply to Chris Tarrant's grandfather ?

Or is it really as discovered above in fact his father in law Fredrick Dupre who would have been 39 when war broke out which sounds far more likely and died aged 96 bar a few days.

[arttidesco]

perhaps was 'improving' the story for he listeners?

Probably not a sackable offence these days

[Vitesse2]

Basil Tarrant's obituary from the Daily Telegraph. No mention of motor sport ...

MAJOR BASIL TARRANT , who died on March 28 aged 85, won an MC in northern France in the final phase of the Second World War; he went on to become a senior executive of Huntley & Palmer, the biscuit company, and to be an enthusiastic supporter of the career of his son, the television presenter Chris Tarrant.

Basil Avery Tarrant was born on July 22 1919 at Reading, where his father ran a printing business. Basil was educated locally at Wilson Central School and was head choirboy of Holy Trinity church. After school he began accountancy studies, but abandoned them -- to his father's dismay -- to join Huntley, Boorne & Stevens, which made decorative hinged tins for its parent, Huntley & Palmer, the Reading-based company which had pioneered mass production of biscuits in the 19th century.

He also joined a territorial unit of the RAOC. Called up in 1939, he went with his unit to France, but was evacuated from Dunkirk in the chaotic retreat of May 1940. ``The lack of information didn't worry us,'' Tarrant said later, ``we just thought somewhere we'd make a stand and fight these swine... I was worried about getting shot, but that was all.''

In 1942 he transferred to the Royal Berkshires and was sent to Sandhurst. He went on to command a platoon of the 5th battalion at Juno beach on D-Day, alongside the Canadian 3rd division under General Keller. Tarrant crawled up on deck at first light to find the sea alive with thousands of Allied vessels amid a cacophony of gunfire and bombing: the Berkshires were among the first to land, supporting the Canadians in securing the beachhead against ferocious resistance and capturing the village of Bernieres-sur-mer.

They then formed a beach party, facilitating the flow of troop landings and the evacuation of the wounded, until August, when they joined the advance towards the Rhine.

Tarrant won the MC for his part in an action in northern France in which he led a night patrol into a group of a buildings that turned out to be infested with Germans. Although heavily outnumbered, the Berkshires killed or drove out the enemy with grenades, suffering no casualties themselves. As the advance continued into Germany, the battalion engaged repeatedly with retreating Panzer units. Tarrant was recommended for a bar to his MC, but in the confusion of the last stages of the war, he never received it.

Promoted to major, he married Joan Cox while on leave in March 1945. On return to the front, he and his driver were severely injured when their Jeep drove over an anti-tank mine. It was thought that Tarrant would lose an arm, but surgeons in England succeeded in saving it.

Having recuperated, he rejoined Huntley, Boorne & Stevens. In due course he became marketing and sales director, the first board member from outside the founding families.

In the post-war years he was also an amateur entertainer, forming a comedy team called the Loos Skroos with three former comrades-in-arms and playing the drums in a local dance band. He was a devoted follower of Reading FC and a keen fisherman. He kept in touch with wartime friends through the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, and he raised funds for the Star & Garter Home.

Chris Tarrant's career as presenter of the children's show Tiswas from 1974 to 1981, and recently as compere of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, was a source of immense pride to Basil, who made a surprise appearance on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2000 in the hooded guise of the Phantom Flan Flinger (a Tiswas character) as Chris Tarrant was receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sir Trevor Macdonald. Onlookers remarked that it was perhaps the only time in his career that the younger Tarrant had been completely lost for words.

Basil Tarrant is survived by his wife -- with whom he celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary, in hospital, a week before his death -- and by their son.

[Thundersports]

Objectionable character in person when he visited Brands while working for Capitol radio it was behind the scenes as such.

["Shangry-La"]

The death of a Frederick Henry DUPRE was registered in June 1996 in Barnet District. His date of birth was given as 18 July 1900.

An F H Dupre drove a Rover in 1934. Not certain that it included Brooklands, but it sounds like that was who he was referring to.

[D-Type]

There's no Tarrant listed in the index of WB's Brooklands history.

Did they still have "riding mechanics" at Brooklands in the late thirties? Does WB's book list them"?

I can visualise a scenario where a keen teenager is offered a ride. Particularly if he were slight of build and light of weight.

Or am I clutching at an extremely unsubstantial straw??

[Vitesse2]

Did they still have "riding mechanics" at Brooklands in the late thirties?

No. The RAC finally banned riding mechanics in British racing after a fatality at Donington Park in 1933.

[Allan Lupton]

Did they still have "riding mechanics" at Brooklands in the late thirties? Does WB's book list them"?

I can visualise a scenario where a keen teenager is offered a ride. Particularly if he were slight of build and light of weight.

Or am I clutching at an extremely unsubstantial straw??

As Vitesse2 says, not by then, but it was on exactly that basis that Rivers-Fletcher was able to claim to have been racing for a ridiculously long time having been recruited (in 1927) at the age of 15 by Malcolm Campbell who wanted to fill the Delage's seat with the lightest passenger he could find.

Edited by Allan Lupton, 07 April 2011 - 13:25.

[David McKinney]

I would imagine that passengers were still permitted during the week - might Mr Tarrant Sr have bummed a ride with someone on a Wednesday afternoon?

[Vitesse2]

I would imagine that passengers were still permitted during the week - might Mr Tarrant Sr have bummed a ride with someone on a Wednesday afternoon?

Perfectly possible. There's a picture in WB's "Brooklands" showing him as a passenger in Lycett's Bentley on a record run on the Railway Straight in August 1939.

[RTH]

I remember someone once saying that they were a "Ford Works Driver "

Turned out he moved pallets around the plant at Dagenham with a fork lift truck.

[PMac]

I remember someone once saying that they were a "Ford Works Driver "

Turned out he moved pallets around the plant at Dagenham with a fork lift truck.

[Allan Lupton]

I remember someone once saying that they were a "Ford Works Driver "

Turned out he moved pallets around the plant at Dagenham with a fork lift truck.

I'm pretty sure there was a Brockbank (or possibly David Langdon) cartoon based on "Works Driver for Jaguar" with much the same concept.

[RTH]

You are probably right Allan.

[kayemod]

I remember someone once saying that they were a "Ford Works Driver "

Turned out he moved pallets around the plant at Dagenham with a fork lift truck.

This can also work the other way around, I posted a story on another thread about Jackie Oliver. He turned up at the Lotus main gate fairly early in 1968 for a meeting with Colin Chapman, announcing loudly, "I'm one of the drivers", expecting to be waved straight through. Word on the new Team signing following Jim's tragic death hadn't reached the head of security, who directed him to the transport section behind the main stores, "You can park over there behing those vans". They were still laughing about this when I joined Lotus several years later.