John Godfrey Parry-Thomas (6 April 1884 – 3 March 1927) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

engineer and

motor-racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...

driver who at one time held the

land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...

. He was the first driver to be killed in pursuit of the land speed record.

Early life and education

Parry-Thomas was born in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

, Wales, the son of the curate of

Rhosddu Rhosddu () is a suburb and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, covering the north-western parts of the city of Wrexham and comprises the wards of Grosvenor, Garden Village and Stansty. At the 2011 Census, the population of the communit ...

. The family moved to nearby

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough ...

when he was five years old, and he was educated at

Oswestry School Oswestry School is an ancient public school (English independent day and boarding school), located in Oswestry, Shropshire, England. It was founded in 1407 as a 'free' school, being independent of the church. This gives it the distinction of b ...

. He went on to study engineering at The

City and Guilds College The Faculty of Engineering is the engineering school of Imperial College London, and one of the three main faculties the college. It was formed in 2001 from the former City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines—two of the three o ...

in London.

Leyland Motors

Parry-Thomas became chief engineer at Leyland Motors, a company whose main products were commercial vehicles. He filed for and received a number of patents, in the fields of electrical and automotive engineering. After the First World War he and his assistant Reid Railton designed the

Leyland Eight The Leyland Eight was a luxury car produced by Leyland Motors from 1920 to 1923. The car was designed by the chief engineer of Leyland Motors, J.G. Parry-Thomas and his assistant Reid Railton, and was intended to be the finest car availabl ...

luxury motor car, which was intended to compete with

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

. His experience of driving this car around

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...

in 1920 persuaded him to give up his career with Leyland to become a full-time motor-racing driver and engineer.

Brooklands

In partnership with another engineer, Major Ken Thomson from New Zealand, he started Thomas Inventions Development Co., based inside the Brooklands circuit itself. After his death, this company became Thomson & Taylor and went on to build such cars as

Malcolm Campbell Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1 ...

's '' Blue Bird''. From 1923 he lived in the "flying village" there, in a bungalow converted from a First World War hut named The Hermitage. It was an ascetic life, shared only with two Alsatian dogs and his cars, in stark contrast to the hedonism of the

Bentley Boys The Bentley Boys were a group of wealthy British motorists who drove Bentley sports cars to victory in the 1920s and kept the marque's reputation for high performance alive. In 1925, as the marque foundered, Bentley Boy Woolf Barnato bought the ...

. Parry-Thomas achieved some success on the circuit, winning 38 races in five seasons and setting numerous records.

Land speed record

By 1925 Parry-Thomas realised that commercial success required a higher profile than Brooklands could offer, and switched his attention to the

. He acquired the

Higham Special Chitty Bang Bang was the informal name of a number of celebrated British racing cars, built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski and his engineer Clive Gallop in the 1920s, which inspired the book, film and stage musical ''Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang' ...

from the estate of the deceased Count Zborowski and rebuilt the car with new bodywork for improved aerodynamics. The car was powered by a huge 27-litre

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

V-12 aero-engine. Without Campbell's money and prestige, or

Henry Segrave Sir Henry O'Neal de Hane Segrave (22 September 1896 – 13 June 1930) was an early British pioneer in land speed and water speed records. Segrave, who set three land and one water record, was the first person to hold both titles simultaneous ...

's factory connections, Parry-Thomas was unable to obtain a brand-new

Napier Lion The Napier Lion is a 12-cylinder, petrol-fueled 'broad arrow' W12 configuration aircraft engine built by D. Napier & Son from 1917 until the 1930s. A number of advanced features made it the most powerful engine of its day and kept it in produ ...

, as the other record contenders were planning. The car was running in 1925 but did not perform as expected. In April 1926 the car, now named ''

Babs Babs or BABS may refer to: People * Nickname of Barbara Windsor (1937-2020), British actress * Babs McMillan, Australian actress * Babs Olusanmokun, American actor * Babs Reingold, American artist * Babs Fafunwa (1923-2010), Nigerian educationis ...

'', emerged with another new body. He celebrated by driving the lanes around Brooklands that same evening, despite his lack of headlamps. A few days later, despite the poor conditions and soft, wet sand, Parry-Thomas took the record at

Pendine Sands Pendine Sands ( cy, Traeth Pentywyn) is a beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales. It stretches west to east from Gilman Point to Laugharne Sands. The village of Pendine ( cy, Pentywyn, link=no) is close to the west ...

, Wales, the same six-mile beach that Campbell had used in 1924 and 1925. The following day, 28 April 1926, he raised it to over , a record that stood for almost a year.

Death

During the winter of 1926/7 ''Babs'' was fitted with yet another new body, partially enclosing the drive and rear wheels by fairings. Parry-Thomas was killed at

on 3 March 1927 while trying to regain his own world

that had been broken just weeks earlier by

on the same beach. At the time of the accident it was thought that the right-hand chain had broken and had hit Thomas, causing a fatal head injury as the car was rolling. During the subsequent restoration of the car, it was found that this could not have been the case and that it was more likely that Thomas had been killed as a result of the injuries he sustained while the car rolled and slid along the beach at more than . Parry-Thomas was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its wind ...

, Surrey, close to the Brooklands Circuit. Following the inquest, ''Babs'' was buried in the dunes at Pendine Sands. Some 42 years later in 1969 it was controversially recovered, and over the next 15 years was restored by

Owen Wyn Owen Owen Wyn Owen (1925 – 13 March 2012) was a Welsh automobile restorer and mechanic. He lived in Capel Curig, Snowdonia. His working life was spent as a lecturer in engineering at Caernarfonshire Technical College in Bangor, but he is known ...

, at the time a member of

Bangor University , former_names = University College of North Wales (1884–1996) University of Wales, Bangor (1996–2007) , image = File:Arms_of_Bangor_University.svg , image_size = 250px , caption = Arms ...

. For part of every summer, ''Babs'' remained on display at the

Pendine Museum of Speed The Pendine Museum of Speed was dedicated to the use of Pendine Sands for land speed record attempts. It was opened in 1996 in the village of Pendine, on the south coast of Wales, and was owned and run by Carmarthenshire County Council. The muse ...

, Carmarthenshire until its demolition in 2020, the car will return to display on completion of the new Sand of Speed Museum.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links

*
Wales and the History of the World
' BBC programme with archive footage of ''Babs''. *
British Pathé film of ''Babs'' being recovered from Pendine Sands in 1969
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parry-Thomas, John Godfrey 1884 births 1927 deaths 20th-century British engineers British automotive engineers Brooklands people Grand Prix drivers Land speed record people People educated at Oswestry School Racing drivers who died while racing Sport deaths in Wales Sportspeople from Wrexham Welsh engineers Welsh racing drivers