9 replies to this topic

[marksixman]

Does anyone have any information on a D H Tindall, possibly an ex-Oxford University man, who possibly owned an Aston Martin Reg No. CPH 505 in 1937 / 1938 ?

 

Lots of possiblies I know !!  I have a photograph of the car competing on an event at Croydon Autodrome July 1938, with my late father as passenger.

[Vitesse2]

Bit of a punt, and it may of course not be your man, but by playing around with the London electoral rolls I've found one Dennis Hamilton Tindall, born 26 June 1910, who lived in Hampstead and was in business at 8 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden. This - coupled with his marriage certificate, which says he was a publisher - would mean he was one of the family which owned the medical publishing company then known as Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, later simply Bailliere Tindall.

 

He doesn't seem to be on the 1939 Register, but given his age I guess it's likely he could have been in the forces by the end of September 1939. His wife Ursula (née Orange) is on the Register, but at her parents' home in Uckfield.

 

Dennis remarried after Ursula died in 1956 and passed away 29 October 2007 in Billingshurst.

[marksixman]

Bit of a punt, and it may of course not be your man, but by playing around with the London electoral rolls I've found one Dennis Hamilton Tindall, born 26 June 1910, who lived in Hampstead and was in business at 8 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden. This - coupled with his marriage certificate, which says he was a publisher - would mean he was one of the family which owned the medical publishing company then known as Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, later simply Bailliere Tindall.

 

He doesn't seem to be on the 1939 Register, but given his age I guess it's likely he could have been in the forces by the end of September 1939. His wife Ursula (née Orange) is on the Register, but at her parents' home in Uckfield.

 

Dennis remarried after Ursula died in 1956 and passed away 29 October 2007 in Billingshurst.

That is most interesting, and thanks Vitesse, as my father was in London at that time, and had a close friend who was also a publisher, so that could be a connection. I will try to follow up on that information.

[Vitesse2]

Looks like he probably had joined up. I've found him in the London Gazette 27 May 1941 p3015, being promoted from Lance Corporal to 2nd Lieutenant in the RAOC, effective 17 Jan 1941. Demobbed as a Captain (temp) - London Gazette 4 April 1946, p1707.

[Vitesse2]

I've found a reference in The Times which suggests Mr Tindall was educated at Charterhouse. He and his wife are also amongst the named guests at a government reception for the International Publishers Congress in June 1936 - along with a selection of the great and the good of publishing at the time; Jonathan Cape, Stanley Unwin and various of his relatives, Hugh Dent, Hamish Hamilton, Billy Collins and Sydney Goldsack of Collins, Sir John Murray, Frederick Muller, a whole bunch of Hodder-Williamses and many more.

[Vitesse2]

One more - this time from The Daily Telegraph, 23 June 1931 - which seems to confirm your suspicion that he was at Oxford. A DH Tindall appears as one of the attendees, 'many of whom brought parties', at the Hertford College Ball, held in a marquee erected on the Quadrangle.

 

A 1985 wedding announcement, in both the Telegraph and Times, suggests he may have been known as 'Tim'. However, this marriage took place 'quietly in Scotland' and I'm not 100% sure it's the same DH Tindall, although this one did live in Sussex. There are also 1970s references to a DH Tindall in connection with the Drapers' Company - a publisher would of course have been a member of the Stationers' Company.

[marksixman]

Thanks for all your time on this one Vitesse2.

 

The publishing house Bailliere, Tindall & Cox has been sold on, sold on, sold on, and sold on, but I have traced (with the help of another good chap in publishing) the alleged current custodians. I will try them in due course, but don't hold out a great deal of hope that anyone will be interested in such old nonsense !

 

Current focus is on two ladies by the name of Tindall with local connections to Billingshurst (where he passed away), one of whom happens to be a friend of a friend's wife in the horsey world. The other stills runs a business in Billingshurst, so awaiting developments.

 

Will keep you posted !

[Vitesse2]

Yes, with all the fragmentation/amalgamation/reorganisation of the various companies which have subsequently owned Bailliere Tindall I'd be surprised if any of their records have survived - other than the early stuff in the University of Reading. Any inquiry to Reed Elsevier would likely be fruitless.

 

However, it is worth noting that the 1984 edition of Bailliere's Nurses' Dictionary - a standard work and still in print - credits Dennis H Tindall as editor. As far as I can tell, that's the only one where he's credited, but since he would have been well past normal retirement age by then I wonder if it was a 'thank you and farewell' gesture?

[marksixman]

After much virtual leg work I have managed to trace and contact the daughter of Dennis Hamilton Tindall, of Bailliere, Tindall & Cox, and despite so many things seeming to fit (ie. she remembers him as being "very keen on cars" and owning "interesting but old stuff", she has now seen the image I have, and says that the driver of the car in question is not her father.

 

One of the two ladies with Billingshurst connections has responded in the negative as well, the other does not recognise the name, but is going to contact other family members.

 

So the hunt goes on !  Must now try exploring other Tindalls, or go back to basics and chase the car (although the Aston Martin Heritage Trust have said that it was written off post-war after a road crash).

 

All good fun and games !

[oliver heal]

 D. H. Tindall appears in the 1952 VSCC membership list. He owned a 1932 Alvis Speed 20. Address: Barnmead, Forest Row, Sussex. By the time of the 1955 list he was an associate member with no eligible car listed. Address: Heath End Cott. Spaniards Rd, N.W.3.