Martinborough farm contractor, Murray Parker, never set out to become the owner of a veteran motor car
Murray had been quite happy pottering around with the 1940 model 741B Indian motorcycle (best known as the Army Indian) he’s owned for 40 years, when events conspired to result in a fully functional 100-year-old Wolsely Siddeley arriving in his shed.
Amazingly, this is the very same car his grandfather, Edward Stone Parker, bought new in 1909!
New, the Wolseley-Siddeley cost £330, but to that had to be added ‘extras’ — which included £25 for the hood, £10/14s for tyres (yes, they were an optional extra!) and £15 for a Bosch dual ignition magneto, a total of over £380, a very expensive machine for the time.
The Wolseley-Siddeley was surprisingly sophisticated for its time, two heavily-quilted tubs with seats for three passengers and the driver. The four-cylinder 2.5 litre petrol engine, with an RAC rating of 14/20hp, features a combination lubrication system of pump and splash oil trays. The ‘crash’ gearbox had three gears, selected via an external shifter. The foot brake (so inefficient you have to plan your braking moments well ahead) operates on the driveshaft. The handbrake operates on the rear wheels only.
The old car cruises happily at 64kph (40mph), and although there are no shock absorbers the springs soak up bumps with ease. An electric starter has been fitted to make this car more user-friendly, but Murray demonstrated that it is easily and quickly started with a crank handle.
As was the case with cars of this era, there was no driver’s door (because of the external brake and gear levers) so entry is gained via the front passenger door.
With this in mind, quite obviously, Edward Parker was a man of substance.
Indeed, he was agent for both Wolseley-Siddeley and Ford Model Ts, and was Mayor of Blenheim twice during the time he owned this car. Murray has a photograph of a Wolseley-Siddeley carrying Lord Kitchener (best known for his famous recruitment posters bearing his heavily moustachioed face and pointing hand over the legend, “Your Country Needs You”) in a parade from Lyttelton to Christchurch in 1909, and is virtually certain it’s the same car as only three of them ever came to New Zealand.
Parliamentary Tour
It is known that a later owner of the car, Edward Stone, sold it in 1925 when his son Keith, now 88 and living at Metlife Care in Masterton, was just four years old, and it disappeared for some years. Apparently one owner stored it in a leaky shed where rust set in and the engine seized.
Fast forward a few years and the Wolseley-Siddeley was in the news again, taking part in the 2007 re-enactment of the Parliamentary Tour of Northland. Kaikoura MP Colin King travelled in the car. He noted its Marlborough origins and sent a photograph of himself with the car to the Amberley-based Hurunui News. The photograph was spotted by a member of the Parker family, who told family historian, Warwick Parker. He emailed the whole family about its reappearance.
Subsequently, Murray’s sister, Hilary, was taking photographs of old cars in Feilding, and was particularly taken with one old-timer. She checked it out and found it was the old family car!
Murray then heard that the car’s owner, Kit Maxwell, was taking the veteran to a rally in Blenheim, and that it was being stored at Pauatahunui by a friend of Mr Maxwell. Murray came up with the idea of taking his dad to Pauatahanui to see the car. During that visit, a chance remark by Murray led to the news that Mr Maxwell wanted to sell it. He was building a decade-by-decade collection and the Wolseley-Siddeley didn’t fit into his plans. He’s actually replaced the Wolseley-Siddeley with a car that carries his own name — a 1913 Maxwell he imported from the US.
That bad news was that there was a lot of interest in the car, including from overseas.
Back in the Family
However, when Maxwell heard Murray was the grandson of the original owner he gave him the first option.
Murray talked to a couple of Vintage Car Club friends, neighbour Graham Clark and Will Holmes, from Greytown, both of whom gave the deal the thumbs-up.
Murray didn’t hesitate a minute longer. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, you’d never get a second chance at something like this,” he said.
The Blenheim trip went ahead, and Kit Maxwell and Murray Parker shook hands on the deal in front of the old Parker homestead, with several family members in attendance.
Due to prior commitments the Wolseley-Siddeley remained in Blenheim for a short while, finally being delivered to Martinborough on Fair Day. The following day, Murray invited his friends round for a welcome-home party for the car, and in the days since then it’s become a familiar sight chugging around the Square (including one circuit with myself sitting right where Lord Kitchener parked his vice-regal bum).
There’s no questioning the car’s reliability. It’s been driven from Bluff to Whangarei twice. I guess after 100 years most potential problems have been sorted!
As for Murray, he can’t stop smiling.
“I bought this car not just because of the family connection,” he said, “I’m going to have a lot of fun with it.”
That’s already happening. He loves the stir the old car causes and the people he meets because of it. The other day he was bailed up by a bunch of Thai tourists who wanted to be photographed with it. While out on a job he spotted Will Holmes and Floris Bosch in a veteran, and on his boss’s instructions he took some time out from work to show off the car.
“Will even had a drive and he was most impressed,” Murray said.
He couldn’t resist demonstrating how well it hand-cranks, but didn’t allow for the fact the angle-parked Wolseley Siddeley was on a unexpected lean. He broke a tooth on the radiator. Murray’s still smiling, although there’s now a gap in the smile.
Wolseley-Siddeley
The very first Wolseley — a three-wheeler — was overseen by Herbert Austin, at that time General Manager of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Co Ltd, in 1896. By 1899, the fledgling Wolseley concern were producing a more conventional four-wheeler. During the early 1900s, the newly named Wolseley Tool and Motor Company had become one of Britain’s largest motor manufacturers, still with Austin in charge.
During this time, Austin arranged for the purchase of the Siddeley Autocar Company, which had been founded by John Davenport Siddeley. Siddeley (who would later become Baron Kenilworth) then began to produce the first cars to carry the Wolseley-Siddeley badge.
In the meantime, Austin’s allegiance to horizontal engines led to problems with the company’s board of directors and, in 1905, Austin left to form his own motor company — although he would remain on the Wolseley-Siddeley board until 1910.
These first Wolseley-Siddeley cars featured vertical four-cylinder engines designed by John Davenport Siddeley they quickly grew to dominate Wolseley’s range, although older, Austin-era cars were still available.
Siddeley ended his relationship with Wolseley in 1909 — going to Deasy — and the Wolseley-Siddeley model name was dropped in 1911.
Words: Kevin Bell
This article is from Classic Car issue 222. Click here to check it out.
