My grandfather was the Scottish motorsport pioneer - Sir Hamish Gilkuddy. He was a pilot, killed on December 25th 1941 somewhere over the Channel.
Such a bald and simple outline, but for those who knew him (and as revealed by his recently discovered journal) he was a truly unique character who was both a product of his time and for all time.
Scoundrel, humane philanthropist, early aviator, thespian, motor racing and record breaking pioneer, auto manufacturer, government espionage agent in WWI, social climber, sexual adventurer and hero... these are but some of the aspects of my amazing grandfather that can now be shared with the world.
Most of his activities are graphically chronicled in the Gilkuddy Photogravure Collection that resides with the Brooklands Society and extracts of which are revealed here for the very first time.
He was a difficult man to get on with at times. He did not suffer fools gladly and his obsessions and eccentricities made him many enemies. He was a Scot through and through. His loathing of the English was only exceeded by his hatred of "the Hun" (as he always referred to them). He was a definite Francophile and a supporter of "The Auld Alliance" as he called it.
His relationship with The Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson is also documented in his Journal - with an amusing motoring twist.
To begin at the beginning...
On December 25th 1890 in Carluke, Scotland was born Hamish Gilkuddy, only child to Kirkwald and Flora Gilkuddy. He was an intensely enquiring baby and devoted to his mother. He was rather frightened of his father who was always dancing and singing in the family home.
However, a bond was eventually made when Kirkwald bought an Argylle car and took his small family to Stirling to see the aeroplane displays. It is said that Hamish was only truly content when in a motor car.
Although quickly separated from his parents on being sent to a boarding preparatory school run by the notorious "Thrasher" MacDonald in Arran, the young boy remained fiercely independent of spirit and became something of a linguist. It is to Thrasher MacDonald that we can fairly safely assign Hamish's life long support of the Auld Alliance and disdain for the English. Headmaster MacDonald was a founding member of the "Scotland for Scots Society" and was particularly mean to any poor English boy sent to his Academy. It is also beyond doubt that young Hamish also came to develop a love for speed while away on Arran. A frequent visitor on speech days was a local hero Sandy Campbell who would arrive in his exciting Napier Speedster and tell the boys thrilling stories of city to city races on the continent and the joys of the French Music Hall. He also encouraged hard work - but this was of no great interest to the students!
Aware that youngsters need exercise, the headmaster encouraged Scottish Stag dancing as a school activity. There are still debates amongst Old Boys as to whether the ritual was totally wholesome for the boys but the activity which involved stalking a mock deer, killing it and then dancing in celebration certainly served Hamish well in some later activities.
It seems now that the rumours circulating about the low butchers bill at the Academy taken in conjunction with the fact that four English boys went missing in four years led to a great deal of circumstantial speculation. Hamish always simply commented - "...it was a healthy diet and we were no vegetarians - let's leave it at that."
Great was the excitement when Thrasher MacDonald bought a car. Being thrifty, it was naturally second hand and was old-fashioned even for the era. The above photograph appeared in the local newspaper when Thrasher MacDonald's chauffeur was arrested for travelling at 8 mph in a built up area. Out of picture side right is a police car in hot pursuit.
Since Hamish's parents had decided to take up Thrasher MacDonald on his special offer of "Two Weeks for the Price of One" to avoid disturbing the boy's pattern of work by a home visit for the holiday, it was necessary to pass the Arran summer with a project. With a chum he had made at school - a French youth who had been sent there by his widowed mother - he built a Dynasphere. It is a sign of his lateral thought processes that instead of going for a conventional means of transport the Scot and his French chum built a vehicle that was a wheel instead of travelling on wheels.
The motive power was a small steam engine from a boat that had gone ashore the previous winter. It appears that the machine was a success and it is seen here on the grounds of the Academy where Thrasher MacDonald had encouraged the offering of rides at sixpence per time to augment the school funds. The current
whereabouts of the Dynasphere are not known.
A wonderful experience for Hamish was an invitation to spend the final two weeks of the summer vacation in Paris at the home of his school friend Claude de Parriere. One can but imagine what a culture shock this was for a young man whose entire experience was geographically restricted to southern Scotland and the Isle of Arran.
From entries in his journal it is clear that Hamish was in ecstasy at the opportunity to sample the delights of Paris in that wonderful period of the entente cordiale.
His hosts very much liked to go to the Music Hall in Paris and there it seems that Hamish lost his heart to Alice Maydue - an English chanteuse who had become very popular in France. Hamish's journal is guarded on the details but it appears they spent many hours in each other's company and he became well teased by Madame de Parriere.
This action on the part of his hostess becomes most interesting when we later learn that she "took him under her wing" and "drove the child out of the man." There is a well thumbed photo in Hamish's collection that bears on the reverse the initials N de P
In the records of the Parisian Bureau de Transport d'Initiative there is a licence application for one Nanette de Parriere.
We can but assume that Hamish Gilkuddy became a man that summer in Paris but whether with a young gamin singer or with the liberated mother of his school friend must remain unknown.
When it was time to return to Arran Academy in the autumn, Hamish did not go. Neither did he return to the family domicile. This is a slightly misty period on his life but there is enough in the photo collection and the journal to put the pieces together.
Part II
Chris Beddows © - 10 Aug 2004
