Post by administrator on Sept 8, 2009 12:17:53 GMT 1
AMONG the things Jean Reville claimed in the 1960s were:
(1) He was not born in Britain. This fantasy trades on his adopted name, and started early – he is already ‘Eric Jean Reville’ when getting married in May 1928, while in the official programme for Easter Monday 1935, he is listed as ‘of France’. He may have visited or even raced in France or Belgium – a newspaper report mentions his ‘big continental reputation’, though I have found no evidence yet in French racing sources.
(2) His mother died when he was young, and his father re-married. This tale seems to have adapted elements of his wife Daisy’s family history, not his own. His parents were still alive, together in Puckeridge, in 1928, having then been married 35 years, whereas Daisy’s immediate family seems to have disappeared by the time she was 12.
(3) He had raced at Brooklands race track and had a workshop and driving school there. Alas, Brooklands Museum can reveal no trace of Palmer or Reville among the recorded renters of lock-up shops there (though the records are incomplete), and the curator has never heard of midget cars racing on the circuit. Perhaps this hints at acquaintance with Lancelot Palmer (‘aeroplane engineer’ in his 1920 advert) who may well have had dealings with aircraft firms at Brooklands airfield in 1914-1918.
(4) He introduced midget car racing to England in 1932. The date more probably marks his entry to dirt-track racing, well before midgets.
(5) He entered 354 races (and won 300). This might just be true – if we count four seasons (1932-1935) of racing in all types of cars. It allows about 90 races a year, about four or five per week over a 20-week season. The curiously exact ‘354’ smacks of private log-books, (with an eye on future publicity ?), while ‘300’ might imply he had only the most recent one to consult (and exaggerate).
(6) He built a vastly improved Flying Gnat in summer 1935, which was not one of the three Gnats he took to Australia, ‘through a shipping mix-up’. There was no mention of the name in the contemporary press, though The Light Car did report his plan for a car with two 500cc engines in May 1935. Fellow driver Ralph Secretan confirmed that Reville’s mechanic Ted Andrews ‘laid out and built the first four-wheel drive [midget]’ but this ‘never actually competed’. I presume that had such a car been built, Reville would have advertised it widely in publicity photographs. Possibly the Flying Gnat was this new version, under construction, and Reville later convinced himself that it had been completed.
(7) The firm had a secret test track ‘up at Furneau, north of London’. This is presumably Furneaux Pelham, a few miles up the Great North Road from Ralph Secretan’s home in Gloucester Place near Regent’s Park. However, the local pronunciation is ‘Furnix’, not ‘Furnow’, Hertfordshire Archive and Local Studies have no record of a track there, and enquiry to the very active Stevenage and District Motor Cycle Club produced a deafening silence. Presumably Jean knew Furneaux Pelham from his youth, as it is only four miles from Puckeridge, where he was born. He may also have known the Rye House Stadium in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, which opened in 1934 for speedway training.
(8) All Palmer-Reville business records and experimental machines were destroyed by a bomb during the War. This is my specialist subject, and I cannot find any bomb near enough to be responsible. This claim may have been inspired by the fact that such a disaster did befall the Skirrow family, who built excellent midget racers in England 1935-1939.
(9) Jean later recalled his ‘brilliant mechanic Edouard Specq’, but there is no mention of the name other than in Reville’s notes, written 30 years after the events. I suggest this is Ted (ie. Edward) Andrews in disguise: the mechanic who polished every speck of dust from the racing cars was dubbed ‘Ted the Speck’, and this got playfully Frenchified into ‘Edouard Specq’.
(10) Jean set up a company with Sir Henry Buckland to manufacture and promote midget racing cars. In the 1930s Sir Henry was the moving spirit and General Manager of the Crystal Palace complex, so of course Jean Reville had dealings with him when setting up his 1934 meetings. Would such a shrewd businessman have backed a small firm like Palmer-Reville without any real resources ?
(11) There is also an Internet rumour that Reville went to the United States in 1928, and started the midget car racing scene in Sacramento in 1933. This must be false, as emigration sailing records show that Jean (or Eric) Reville (or Revell) did not leave England by sea in the period 1925 to 1934, and it is most unlikely that he had the money to leave by air.
(1) He was not born in Britain. This fantasy trades on his adopted name, and started early – he is already ‘Eric Jean Reville’ when getting married in May 1928, while in the official programme for Easter Monday 1935, he is listed as ‘of France’. He may have visited or even raced in France or Belgium – a newspaper report mentions his ‘big continental reputation’, though I have found no evidence yet in French racing sources.
(2) His mother died when he was young, and his father re-married. This tale seems to have adapted elements of his wife Daisy’s family history, not his own. His parents were still alive, together in Puckeridge, in 1928, having then been married 35 years, whereas Daisy’s immediate family seems to have disappeared by the time she was 12.
(3) He had raced at Brooklands race track and had a workshop and driving school there. Alas, Brooklands Museum can reveal no trace of Palmer or Reville among the recorded renters of lock-up shops there (though the records are incomplete), and the curator has never heard of midget cars racing on the circuit. Perhaps this hints at acquaintance with Lancelot Palmer (‘aeroplane engineer’ in his 1920 advert) who may well have had dealings with aircraft firms at Brooklands airfield in 1914-1918.
(4) He introduced midget car racing to England in 1932. The date more probably marks his entry to dirt-track racing, well before midgets.
(5) He entered 354 races (and won 300). This might just be true – if we count four seasons (1932-1935) of racing in all types of cars. It allows about 90 races a year, about four or five per week over a 20-week season. The curiously exact ‘354’ smacks of private log-books, (with an eye on future publicity ?), while ‘300’ might imply he had only the most recent one to consult (and exaggerate).
(6) He built a vastly improved Flying Gnat in summer 1935, which was not one of the three Gnats he took to Australia, ‘through a shipping mix-up’. There was no mention of the name in the contemporary press, though The Light Car did report his plan for a car with two 500cc engines in May 1935. Fellow driver Ralph Secretan confirmed that Reville’s mechanic Ted Andrews ‘laid out and built the first four-wheel drive [midget]’ but this ‘never actually competed’. I presume that had such a car been built, Reville would have advertised it widely in publicity photographs. Possibly the Flying Gnat was this new version, under construction, and Reville later convinced himself that it had been completed.
(7) The firm had a secret test track ‘up at Furneau, north of London’. This is presumably Furneaux Pelham, a few miles up the Great North Road from Ralph Secretan’s home in Gloucester Place near Regent’s Park. However, the local pronunciation is ‘Furnix’, not ‘Furnow’, Hertfordshire Archive and Local Studies have no record of a track there, and enquiry to the very active Stevenage and District Motor Cycle Club produced a deafening silence. Presumably Jean knew Furneaux Pelham from his youth, as it is only four miles from Puckeridge, where he was born. He may also have known the Rye House Stadium in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, which opened in 1934 for speedway training.
(8) All Palmer-Reville business records and experimental machines were destroyed by a bomb during the War. This is my specialist subject, and I cannot find any bomb near enough to be responsible. This claim may have been inspired by the fact that such a disaster did befall the Skirrow family, who built excellent midget racers in England 1935-1939.
(9) Jean later recalled his ‘brilliant mechanic Edouard Specq’, but there is no mention of the name other than in Reville’s notes, written 30 years after the events. I suggest this is Ted (ie. Edward) Andrews in disguise: the mechanic who polished every speck of dust from the racing cars was dubbed ‘Ted the Speck’, and this got playfully Frenchified into ‘Edouard Specq’.
(10) Jean set up a company with Sir Henry Buckland to manufacture and promote midget racing cars. In the 1930s Sir Henry was the moving spirit and General Manager of the Crystal Palace complex, so of course Jean Reville had dealings with him when setting up his 1934 meetings. Would such a shrewd businessman have backed a small firm like Palmer-Reville without any real resources ?
(11) There is also an Internet rumour that Reville went to the United States in 1928, and started the midget car racing scene in Sacramento in 1933. This must be false, as emigration sailing records show that Jean (or Eric) Reville (or Revell) did not leave England by sea in the period 1925 to 1934, and it is most unlikely that he had the money to leave by air.
(c) DAVID HAUNTON 2009