22 replies to this topic

[Vitesse2]

Here in the UK, the History Channel have a series of 2-minute programmes called "A Small Piece of History". Featured in their quarterly preview magazine is this (all typos and spelling mistakes are in the original), but they don't make clear whether it has been filmed:

Mrs Janet Jeavons from Kingswinford brought along a small piece of motoring history from The Spanish Grand Prix in 1924 to our roadshow at Witley Court, Worcestershire. Her grandfather, Thomas Barrett was a passenger mechanic at Sunbeam Motor Car Co Ltd for H.O.D. Seagrave. Unfortunately, her grandfather was killed in the Spanish Grand Prix in San Sebastian due to a fatal accident. As a result the rules of motor racing changed so that mechanics would no longer ride with the driver, making Mrs Jeavon's grandfather one of the last mechanics to ride in a Grand Prix race. The Car - 'The Sunbeam Cub' was rebuilt and raced again and is now on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. Mrs Jeavons brought along the sash that was draped over her grandfather's coffin.

Right - some errors of fact and additions:

1 There was no Spanish GP in 1924 - there was a San Sebastian GP though.

2 The 1924 San Sebastian GP was won by Segrave.

3 A Sunbeam did crash in that race, but it was driven by Kenelm Lee Guinness - his mechanic was killed, but Sheldon says his name was Perkins. It was his death which led to the abolition of riding mechanics.

4 Among the supporting items is a poster or flyer for the "II Circuito Automobilista San Sebastian", which fits. The only other word I can make out on it is "Lasarte", the other name for the circuit. The sash is red and yellow in the same colours and proportions as the Spanish national flag and bears the legend "T.BARRETT" in white letters.

5 There is also a photograph of what looks like a 1924 GP Sunbeam, with "The Cub" painted on the bonnet, which appears to have been taken at Brooklands.

6 Segrave "pioneered the wearing of a crash helmet in racing" in this race. (Cyril Posthumus in Georgano Encyclopaedia, page 295)

So - did Segrave crash in practice for this race? I can't find any reference to him ever crashing a GP Sunbeam and certainly not at San Sebastian in 1924. Thoughts and comments anyone?

[dretceterini]

Sorry Vitesse:

A little too early for the stuff I know...

Stu

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
.....did Segrave crash in practice for this race? I can't find any reference to him ever crashing a GP Sunbeam and certainly not at San Sebastian in 1924.....

He did not crash.

Practice and race took place on a very wet roads, sections were in muddy condition. Already during practice Martin de Alzaga flipped his Sunbeam over and was pulled out from below the car, heavily injured. The mechanic Dowen was brought to hospital with several interior injuries.

During the race was a fatal crash. On lap 11, Lee Guiness (Sunbeam) did not make one turn, crashed and broke his arm in this accident. His mechanic [Perkins Barret?] fell down a 20 meter [66 ft] embankment and was immediately dead.

Benoist also spun out and hit a wall, damaging his Delage so badly that he had to retire. Sailer and Masetti both had similar problems during the race. Masetti retired on lap 19, after his Mercedes left the slippery road and hit the fencing.

Freely translated from AAZ (A) 1924, No.20, pg. 11-12

[Doug Nye]

This is very interesting, but in fact the unfortunate racing mechanic was indeed not Bill Perkins, but his substitute, Jack Barratt....

1924 San Sebastian Grand Prix on the Lasarte circuit - race run on September 27.

Before this trip Bill Perkins had been riding mechanic to Dario Resta at Brooklands during attacks made upon International Class E (2-litre) world records on September 2 and 3. Tackling the longer-distance marks on the second day Resta and Perkins were entering the Railway Straight on their fourth lap when the right-rear tyre left the rim, Resta lost control, and the Sunbeam crashed backwards through corrugated-iron fencing flanking the track. Resta was killed and Bill Perkins sustained serious injuries.

Due to these injuries Perkins missed the Spanish trip.

He had been listed to ride with Kenelm Lee Guinness.

Due to Perkins' incapacity, fellow mechanic Jack Barratt was given the ride. Segrave was accompanied by a mechanic named Marocchi, as at Lyon-Givors and the Grand Prix de l'ACF earlier in that year.

Martin de Alzaga's practice crash involved his 4.9-litre Coppa Florio Sunbeam.

According to Sunbeam historian Anthony Heal, who had the benefit of having consulted former team members long before he wrote the following:

"On a corner near Aldeamuro it seems that Guinness glanced back, his offside front wheel struck a rut and the car skidded on the slippery wet road, hitting the bank on the left. It bounced back,overturning three times, and hit a stone wall on the right, the driver and mechanic being thrown out over the wall and down into a steep railway cutting. Jack Barratt was killed and Guinness injured his head and legs. Ambulance men scrambled down and carried both men on stretchers to the nearby first aid post. Segrave stopped but was reassured by officials that his team mate had survived the crash..."

KLG was never quite the same man again - he suffered from headaches and confusion ever after and did not, as far as I know, race again.

DCN

[Vitesse2]

Thanks Doug. Interesting detail. Coincidentally the race was exactly 31 years before I was born.

Barrett must surely be considered extremely unlucky to have met his maker in such circumstances.

Presumably Sunbeam mechanics were not assigned to any particular driver then, if Perkins had accompanied both Resta and Lee Guinness. So it's certainly possible that Barrett was at least an irregular partner for Segrave.

I shall attempt to contact the lady concerned in order to let her know what has been unearthed.

[Milan Fistonic]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Thanks Doug. Interesting detail. Coincidentally the race was exactly 31 years before I was born.

And exactly 18 years before I was born.

[Doug Nye]

I find the family reference to 'Thomas' instead of 'Jack' very interesting. Alas poor Jack might well in fact have been alas poor Tom in reality...

It would be pretty typical of the period - and of Anthony Heal's similarly managerial-class/private-income sources - to recall a mechanic from so long ago as 'Jack', 'Bill', 'Charlie', 'Jim', 'Chalky' without having any real clue as to what his proper name really was.

There is a wonderful little book I have somewhere by a former shopfloor worker at 'The Sunbeam' as the employees knew the company, which would probably cite the correct name by which the unfortunate Mr Barratt was known to his workmates, but I cannot find it at the moment. If his family recall him as 'Thomas' I think it's really odds-on that he was in reality 'Tom' Barratt and the 'Jack' Barratt mention in Anthony Heal's otherwise excellent Sunbeam history - spoiled only by the lousiest printing I recall in modern times (WELL DONE Haynes) - is in error.

DCN

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Milan Fistonic


And exactly 18 years before I was born.

18 years + 2 days before I was born.

[Barry Lake]

Did Mrs Jeavons spell his name as "Barrett" and, if so, since she is a descendant, wouldn't that be the correct spelling?

[Vitesse2]

That is the spelling on the sash, and in the text published by History Channel.

Featured in their quarterly preview magazine is this (all typos and spelling mistakes are in the original),

[Vitesse2]

... and in the report of the race in The Brooklands Gazette, October 1924, page 179:

Masetti retired with engine trouble during the 11th, and in that round, too, a fatal accident occurred which put Lee Guinness out of the race, and in which his mechanic Barrett, was unfortunately killed.

Not a lot of room for sentimentality ....

[Doug Nye]

I revive this thread merely to report that today I saw a wonderful privately published book on the San Sebastian races which I did not know existed before. No doubt some of our Spanish friends will be well aware of it. It's very nicely done, great gen by the look of it and many photographs nicely reproduced that I have never seen before. Obviously I hunted out the reference to the Guinness/Barrett accident - and the author seems to have played it both ways, probably unconsciously, recording that the mechanic "Perkins Barrett" was fatally injured...

DCN

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
... the Guinness/Barrett accident - and the author seems to have played it both ways, probably unconsciously, recording that the mechanic "Perkins Barrett" was fatally injured...

... reminiscent of what Hans posted above - was your [Perkins Barret?] speculation or quoting from AAZ Hans?

Doug - did you get my email re this?

[Doug Nye]

Yep. Just winding you up...

DCN

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Vitesse2


... reminiscent of what Hans posted above - was your [Perkins Barret?] speculation or quoting from AAZ Hans?.....

Richard,
Not an AAZ quote but by me. Therefore the square parentheses.




Doug,
you must have seen Angel Elberdin's wonderful 332-page book Circuito de Lasarte published in 1998. I was rather fortunate to receive a signed copy from the author in 1999. Maria, a Spanish lady friend of mine, had to leave Honolulu to visit her sick brother in her home town San Sebastian. Before she left, I pleaded with her to look for a book about the San Sebastian races during the twenties and thirties. Many weeks later, this incident long forgotten, she surprisingly appeared all of a sudden in my office and smilingly handed me this coffee table book. I remember that I was absolutely stunned at that moment, so great was the surprise.

[Doug Nye]

Hans - that's the one. Exactly my reaction. I previously did not know it even existed.

DCN

[Doug Nye]

Here's a rather damaged pic of Kenelm Lee Guinness - of KLG Spark plug company fame, amongst other things - with the unfortunate Tom Barrett alongisde him in the pits at Lasarte in 1924. Sunbeam may have copied Fiat technology - or indeed entire designs - in their GP cars of the period but they were powerful, good handling, well-braked and undeniably effective.



DCN

[dretceterini]

I've never heard of this book...my list gets longer each day...

Stu

[Hans Etzrodt]

Originally posted by Doug Nye
Here's a rather damaged pic of Kenelm Lee Guinness - of KLG Spark plug company fame, amongst other things - with the unfortunate Tom Barrett alongisde him.....

Doug,
Its also a nice side shot of the 1924 Sunbeam before it got crumpled in the crash.

[Vitesse2]

Thanks Doug!

[Mark Ballard]

There is a wonderful little book I have somewhere by a former shopfloor worker at 'The Sunbeam' as the employees knew the company, which would probably cite the correct name by which the unfortunate Mr Barratt was known to his workmates, but I cannot find it at the moment

I think the book you mean is "My Life at the Sunbeam 1920-1935" by Norman Cliff where he refers to the race where "K. Lee Guinness crashed and Tommy Barrett lost his life"
he goes on to say
"There had been quite a few accidents. There was poor Tommy Barrett. I worked a lot with him and he shared with me many confidences. Like others before him and since, he was one of those whose 'wife did not understand him'. I listened very patiently and realised that it could be possible that he did not understand his wife. Perhaps his domestic troubles caused him to volunteer for the mechanic's position in the Spanish Grand Prix when, due to an earlier accident, the official mechanic, Bill Perkins was unable to ride as he was in hospital."

The book also has a photo of the car post crash.

Mark

[Vitesse2]

Excellent! Thanks Mark.

Could you either post the picture here or email it to me?

[Mark Ballard]

Better late than never......