17 replies to this topic

[Tim Murray]

I’m starting a new thread so as not to go further OT in the Tim Parnell’s Lotus 18 thread.

Reg Parnell (2 July 1911 - 7 January 1964) was the father of ‘Tim’ Parnell (25 June 1932 - 5 April 2017). Tim’s given names at birth were Reginald Harold Haslem, according to Graham Gauld’s biography of Reg senior. Haslem was the family name of Tim’s mother, and Harold came from a cousin who had died after being thrown from his bicycle and run over by a steam roller in Derby.

Reg senior apparently didn’t like any of the names that his son had been given.

’My father thought my name was shocking, in fact I don’t think he was even present at my christening because he couldn’t believe they had given me all those names - so he always used to call me Tim!’

Now, googling throws up many, many online sources which state that Reg senior’s full name was Reginald Harold Haslam (sic) Parnell. This strikes me as unlikely, as Haslem/Haslam was Tim’s mother’s family name.

So, was Reg senior really Reginald Harold Haslam? Did he actually have any middle names? None is mentioned in the Gauld biography, and his gravestone just lists him as Reg:

https://www.findagra...732/reg-parnell

And should Tim’s middle name be spelt Haslem or Haslam?

[Allen Brown]

No mention of a middle name when he was baptised:

 

[Allen Brown]

Nor when he was married.  And it looks like Haslam should have been spelt with an 'a'.

 

[Tim Murray]

Excellent! Thanks Allen. That’s pretty damn conclusive.

[Vitesse2]

Allen beat me by a short head! No middle name on the 1939 Register or various 1940s-60s travel records either.

[Eric Dunsdon]

He was just 'Uncle Reg' to many of us at the time.

[D-Type]

"Uncle Reg" reminds me.  Didn't Reg also have a nephew Roy, who raced in about 1958-59 including in Formula 2?

Edited by D-Type, 05 July 2020 - 22:39.

[Tim Murray]

Roy Parnell was the son of Reg’s elder brother Bill. He has his own thread:

Roy Parnell

It would appear he competed from time to time in the post-war 1940s, including being nominated as David Murray’s relief driver in both the British and Lausanne GPs in 1949. He then became a well-respected test driver at Aston Martin, often working under Uncle Reg.

[Vitesse2]

Not the actual certificate, but a copy of the register entry. Column 2, line 11. No second initial.

 

 

And the travel records I mentioned - from Argentina by boat and into the US by plane - would all have to accord with what it said on his passport. No middle name or initial on any of them.

[D-Type]

I've corrected the Wikipedia entry for Reg Parnell so it says he was simply "Reginald".  I wonder how long the correction will last.

Edited by D-Type, 15 July 2020 - 08:53.

[Michael Oliver]

I have now seen a copy of Reg's birth certificate and can confirm that he is just Reginald, with no other given names.

[Tim Murray]

Excellent, thanks Duncan and Michael. I suspect though that it’s a forlorn hope that this myth will ever be laid to rest.

[ChrisJson]

Now I've changed both Reg and Tim Parnell's entries on swedish Wikipedia also.

 

Christer

[D-Type]

I've corrected the Wikipedia entry for Reg Parnell so it says he was simply "Reginald".  I wonder how long the correction will last.

As I expected, the correction didn't last so I've changed Wikipedia entries for both Reg and Tim this time.

Edited by D-Type, 22 September 2023 - 21:00.

[buswalker]

…….. and his gravestone just lists him as Reg:

https://www.findagra...732/reg-parnell
 

As an aside, following the link given above to details of Reg Parnell’s grave, in the first post of this thread, reveals that a gentleman called Jamie Taylor was later buried in the same plot.

A little strange, give Reg’s eminence…..

I wonder how that came about?

[Geoff E]

As an aside, following the link given above to details of Reg Parnell’s grave, in the first post of this thread, reveals that a gentleman called Jamie Taylor was later buried in the same plot.

 

 

Likely this person- (details copied from Ancestry)

James Gilmour Taylor

Birth1913 - Dundonald, Ayrshire, Scotland

Death1979 - Stafford, Staffordshire, England

MotherAnnie Taylor

FatherAndrew Stewart Taylor

 

 

James G Taylor married Betty W Parnell in 1969.

[buswalker]

Likely this person- (details copied from Ancestry)

James Gilmour Taylor

Birth1913 - Dundonald, Ayrshire, Scotland

Death1979 - Stafford, Staffordshire, England

MotherAnnie Taylor

FatherAndrew Stewart Taylor

 

 

James G Taylor married Betty W Parnell in 1969.

Thanks for this, Geoff.

So he was Reg’s widow’s second husband.

[GLaird]

This will be disgracefully irreverent, but it in sympathy to Reggie Perrin is it lolanthe?