RE: E.C.E. BARAGWANATH (EDWIN, TED)
I was also keen to discover more about Edwin (Ted) Baragwanath since he has the same name as my mother whose family history I was researching. An article in the June 1994 Motor Sport by William Boddy described Ted's exploits tuning Brough Superiors for racing at Brooklands. In one case, a machine that he tuned for G.L.Parkes went so fast it went over the top of the Members' Banking over some nearby trees and spiked railings to land in the entrance road near the paybooth. Unfortunately the motorcyclist did not survive the flight and the gate-keeper and someone else in the paybooth having a chat were taken to hospital.
The article led to my writing to its author who sent me a very informative reply.
Ted or E C E Baragwanath must surely be your Edwin Charles Baragwanath. I did not know, or have forgotten, that he had a garage in Camden Town, North London, but it is extremely likely. He certainly used to sit on the step outside a house there and dispense useful hints and tips to other motorcyclists, especially those tuning big twin-cylinder engines, notwithstanding that he was by the 1920's very famous indeed as a racing motorcyclist, both at Brooklands Track in Surrey and elsewhere.
I recall him as wearing a wing collar and, was it, a bow tie. He rode mostly big machines like his Brough Superiors, both solo and sidecar, and took important lap and other records at Brook lands, where he first raced in 1912. If you want a full record of his exploits there, from then to 1929, you need "Bikes at Brooklands in the Pioneer Years" by Peter Hartley and “Brooklands in the Twenties”, by the same author. Not that Baragwanath stopped in 1929, where the second book ends; the author never wrote a third volume, despite several prods from me. He now seems to have disappeared and the books (published in 1973/1980 by Goose & Son/Argus Books Ltd) are long out of print. You might be able to obtain copies from the second-hand booksellers who advertise in the back of Motor Sport. (The first book has 9 pages indexed to Ted, the second one has 19 plus reference to a cup he donated.)
There are several other books that refer, but perhaps the above are sufficient for the moment. Barry really was a highly-respected person in the motorcycle racing world; he got a gold star for lapping Brooklands at 100 mph or over in 1931, riding a sidecar outfit. Others you should contact are C E Alien, BEM of the Vintage Motor-Cycle Club, who has a Brough outfit from the Barry period; and Dr Joseph Bayley, who knows almost everything about the motorcycle racing at the Track.
The books that I have obtained are two books by Jeff Clew about JAP and published by Haynes; one has a photograph of Ted.
I have tried to link ECE Baragwanath with the Baragwnaths of my mother's family who originally came from the area around St Ives in Cornwall and to anyone else currently researching the Baragwanath family tree, but without much success. If you have any other information, I would be extremely keen to hear from you - although I apprerciate that it is a few years since your original posting
(This post was last modified: 03-01-2009, 02:21 PM by TonyMock.)
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