R O Harrison - his life
By his daughter and grandaughterA list of facts and dates related to his life and work and in particular information of interest to cyclists who remember the name, by his daughter, Muriel Kidall.
Reginald Oliver Harrison was born in 1902 to Mrs Nancy (maiden name Oliver) Harrison and Edgar Harrison. As a child, I knew them when they lived at 25 Ardleigh Road Walthamstow. Reginald was their eldest son and there was a younger brother named Charles who was the survivor of twin boys.
R O H attended the local London County Council school and was awarded medals in the years 1912 and 1913 for “attendance, conduct and industry”. He also achieved the highest marks for mathematics in the LCC area during his last year at school. He was also a keen scouter and became a King's Scout - I have a photograph of him in uniform. He was quite an accomplished pianist and also enjoyed painting water-colour landscapes as a young man.
When he left school he worked in an aircraft factory and he retained his interest in aircraft throughout his life, so much so that he always planned to make an engineless plane, basically designed utilising the bicycle and his knowledge of aerodynamics. He liked to make and fly quite large kites.
From the medals and a
silver cup I have he must have been involved in
road racing events run by the Essex Roads Cycling Club for 25, 30 and
100 miles handicap races in 1920 and 1921.
See image to left of R O H aged 20 years with silver cup
See image to left of R O H aged 20 years with silver cup
He left the aircraft factory and worked for Selbach who produced hand-built lightweight cycles.
His marriage, possibly in 1925, was to Winifred Allard and they rented a house in Walthamstow near his mother and father. During the depression of 1926 onwards he left Selbach’s and set up his own business making hand-made lightweight cycles to order. His father purchased a small shop for them in Peckham and this was where the business of New Star Cycles was started.
He worked very hard to build up his clientele and began to employ and train young men to help production as the orders increased. His daughter was born in 1926 and in 1930 they purchased their first house in Sidcup and thereafter he cycled every day to the workshop and home in the evening.
I remember the two-roomed workshop with its forge (brazing-hearth) and the shelving for tubing etc and the special designs he made for customers, including his own design for the special forks and cut out lugs. He never really enjoyed welding his frames but did so if requested. The business prospered and another very large shop was leased for retail trade at no. 23 Queens Road Peckham. This property provided spacious living accommodation which the family moved into in 1938, moving from their second house in Kidbrook.
Number 23 became a centre for all the cycling enthusiasts to meet, especially on a Saturday. The retail trade included ready-made Dawes cycles, which he was prepared to sell together with clothing, saddle bags and all the latest gears and brakes from Italy etc. His wife Winifred Harrison dealt with all the secretarial work at this time. In addition to Peckham he had an outlet agent in Brighton, Strudwick Cycles.
During this prosperous pre-war period New Star cycles were exhibited at the Cycle Shows in Earls Court annually and at the Six Day Cycle races at Wembley, where they were ridden usually by Dutch competitors, my Father being their sponsor. He still cycled for pleasure and he and my Mother rode a tandem on which I also enjoyed cycling at great speed with my Father. The family now had two cars, one being used for the business. The local Chamber of Commerce was also important to my Father at this time and he was Chairman for some time. He was also a Mason and was due to be the Head of the Lodge when he became ill. Advertising was an important part of the business and a well known artist/caricaturist produced some excellent posters featuring the ''Pardon me! But it’s a Harrison'' slogan.
With the onset of war the business continued well but with the shortage of materials the production of bikes began to be difficult although the popularity of the Peckham shop continued. Eventually ROH was conscripted but was too old to be in the armed forces. His MI MechE qualification was useful and he was posted to work in Woolwich Arsenal making guns during the blitz and sometimes on night-shift. However, he continued to make bikes to order with one assistant and was often in the workshop until very late. My Mother ran the retail business and spent a lot of time ferrying frames to the enamellers in Stratford. She was also conscripted and worked for the Gas Board in London. I was evacuated to the country with my school until 1942. Fortunately, the shop only suffered one incendiary bomb and the loss of shop windows during the blitz, so it was still a Saturday haven.
Post-war accessories and materials were very difficult but bikes were in demand and recovery progressed and ROH had big plans for the New Star again. However, his health deteriorated in the 50's and in 1955 he was diagnosed to have lung cancer and died later that year just before Whitsun. Mrs Harrison continued to run the retail shop and Reginald, a faithful assistant, completed all the outstanding work and the business was closed and all stock sold.
I continued to meet enthusiastic New Star cycle owners and it would appear from the website ROH's fame is still there.
His grandaughter adds:
R.
O. Harrison a story from his grand daughter - Sally KidallI've just had a chat with Mum, Muriel Kidall née Harrison. She is thrilled that her dad's bikes are still popular and that the 'enthusiasts' are still out there. She talked about the crowds of clubmen that would hang out in his shop on Saturdays. This shop that is mentioned on your web site in Nunhead is a mystery to her as her mother (Winifred Harrison/Allard) did not sell the business name etc. only the stock, so I wonder who was operating a shop using his name and if some of the bikes sold at that time were copies of his and not orginals.
Right is an image of R O H in
his scouting days
Mum says that they held very little stock of frames as most were built to order. R O H had a fellow helping him in the shop called Reginald too (no surname known) who kept working for Winifred after Reg (Reginald Oliver) died early in 1955. I wonder if he had something to do with this. R O H died of lung cancer. Mum reckons he worked and smoked himself into the ground during the war. He worked at the Woolwich Arsenal during the day in the war and at night he built bikes. Mum hated the business of course as it took her father away from the family. He was always working. It was very tough financially, he lived and breathed the business. Mum reckons it killed him, he was only in his early 50s. He was committed to keeping it going during the war and Winifred took the frames during the day to somewhere in London to have them enamelled while he was working at the Arsenal. She helped with the business book keeping etc and the three of them lived upstairs over the leased shop, which Mum also hated with the noise of the tram points right out side the window.
Winifred died in 1992 aged 91 years, having moved to Bath after the death of her husband, then to Suffolk.
Mum has some cups and medals that he won for racing. He used to do a lot of time trials etc. Apparently he excelled at maths and had won a prize from the LCC. She mentions how his parents rode a tandem too. There is a photo somewhere I've seen of them, so this generational love of cycling is very evident. He was a very small man but broad, only about 5 feet high, his wife was 4 ft 10in. He was very active in the local community, the Chamber of Commerce and he was a Mason. He encouraged my mum to get a good education and was very supportive when she took up architecture, studying during the war (there very few women architects at this time).
The prints are great. There are 7 designs, measuring about 120mm high. They are all cartoons of cyclist doing crazy things like overtaking a bus, or a cyclist smoking a large cigar etc and they all say: "Pardon me! But it’s a Harrison". They were designed for his adverts for the paper. There maybe some original papers with them in at the Peckham library. I've been printing them at home with my home made 'human press' that works quite well, except for one print of a night time scene. I remember that my grandfather had a great sense of humour which is reflected, I think, in these prints.
Sally
Click here to view six more R O Harrison adverts
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Mick Scott says:
I was looking at the article on RO Harrison and the link that led to the article by his daughter and granddaughter which mentions the Essex Roads CC. As a member of the Essex Roads and the holder of a number of old club handbooks it set me searching.
I have established that we had a RO Harrison who joined the club in 1919 and I have found his address in handbooks dated 1928 to 1933. In 1928 his address is listed as 36 Angell Road, Brixton SW. Then 1929 to 1933 at 9 Ardleigh Terrace, E17.
In the 1928 handbook we also have listed a EC Harrison (joined 1921) who possibly was R O Harrison's dad, as in the article above his dad's name is Edgar. This E C Harrison was a vice-president and is listed as living at 25 Ardleigh Rd, E17 in the 1926 handbook. His address stays the same until 1939.
The next handbook that I have is the 1947 and at this point it gives his address as 41-43 Queens Road, Peckham. The shop address is given as 23 Queens Road. Then 1949-1952 it is back to 25 Ardleigh Road E17. Whilst I can't be sure if it’s the same RO Harrison the mention of the Essex Roads CC could make him the one and same. Also his granddaughter Sally mentions trophies and medals. Is it possible to pass this info onto her to see if it is the same R O Harrison?
Sally, now living in Australia, contacted her mother, Muriel, who replied:
"Yes E C Harrison was Edgar and he was my grandfather who lived at 25 Ardleigh Road, Walthamstow E17. It was a large estate of quite interesting, mostly terraced housing and my grandmother, Nancy Oliver, regularly won first prize for her little front garden arrangement.
I was born at Angell Road Brixton in 1926 and I suppose they moved to 9 Ardleigh Terrace after the year Mum and Dad had in Leigh-on-Sea near Southend when Dad cycled every day to work in Essex somewhere while Mum ran a boarding house for visitors. We moved to Sidcup in 1933 I think and my father bought a newly-built semi-detached house on an estate and I walked to school across some fields. We moved to Kidbrooke in Kent in 1936 and in 1937.
My grandfather bought a small shop with two rooms above at 41 - 43 Queens Rd Peckham, in 1933 I think, and he gave it to my father to set up his own cycle-making business. And he cycled there every day from Sidcup. The business flourished and that's how they were able to move to a bigger new house in 19 Broadwalk, Kidbrooke. In 1936 or '37 my father leased the shop and living accommodation at 23 Queens Road Peckham and ran a very successful business selling his own bikes as well as Dawes factory-made bikes. He persuaded Mum to move into the very large Georgian flat with two bedrooms over the shop at 23 Queens Rd in late 1938.
So Edgar and Nancy Harrison rode a tandem and you have seen their photo (above), so he must have been a member of the Essex Roads CC. I have four gold medals won by ROH:
50-miles handicap, fastest 2h 26m 51s 1921
100-miles handicap 5h 29m 15s in 1922
25-mile handicap 1h 15m 5s in 1920
50-mile Time Trial 2h 27m 3s in 1921, he was also first in handicap races in 1920 - 2h 3m 50s and 1921 2h 26m 51s and was awarded the silver cup that I have.
In 1939 the New Star Cycles business was flourishing and we had a new car, the old steering wheel standard lamp came from the first second-hand Fiat open top big car that I loved to ride in the back seat with the top down. The business continued during the war despite problems in obtaining steel tubing for bikes and ROH was called up to work in Woolwich Arsenal, on enormous calibre guns, as he had engineering qualifications, but he continued to make bikes with one of his experienced assistants and he was in the shop at no. 41-43 every evening and at the weekends. Altogether too much but he was desperate to survive and Nan did all the office work and looked after the shop the during the day all through the war. He died of lung cancer in May 1954 after a short sharp period of illness. He was 50. Today is his birthday 10.6.04."