Cyril Harris drives to retirement

Eight times round the world is quite a long way to drive. But when it is 200,000 miles backwards and forwards between Television House and Wembley it is perhaps an even more unusual feat.

This is what driver Cyril Harris has done in the last 10 years, carrying the memos, letters, files, schedules and all the other items which need to travel to and fro. In this article sorrel bentinck tells his story.

 

Cyril Harris was born in Holloway N.7 in 1903, and he went to school there until 1917. Then began the struggle to find work during the depression. He did many jobs. As he says: ‘I was getting more ideas and experience and moving around while I could, after all if you don’t move around when you’re young you never will.’

But throughout one thing remained constant – his interest in cars. ‘My uncle had a garage and I used to go there every weekend to tinker about with engines and learn how to drive’. Gradually he began to get driving jobs and he realised that being a chauffeur was a good life. During these early years one of his employers sent him on a fortnight’s course at Rolls-Royce where he was taught all about engines, and given lessons on the road. ‘When I was there each engine had six tests before it was put into the chassis, and after each test it was stripped right down, examined and put together again,’ he recalls.

In 1936 Lord Swaythling wanted a driver for his Rolls-Royce, and Rolls recommended Cyril Harris as a competent, fully-trained chauffeur. As a J.P. Lord Swaythling was extremely strict about speed limits – quite rightly so in Cyril Harris’s opinion. He was head chauffeur with Lord Swaythling until the war broke out when he went to work as a machine tool fitter at the Super Marine Spitfire works in Southampton.

He stayed there until 1949 when he was offered a chauffeur’s job with Lady Astor who lived at Cliveden. During his time there Cyril Harris drove many famous people including Princess Alice and Lord Athlone and Princess Margaret and the Duchess of Devonshire. As head chauffeur he had complete charge of four other drivers and the 20 vehicles on the estate. These included horse boxes for Lord Astor’s 90 race horses (which, incidentally, Cyril Harris never backed), two shooting brakes, a car for the gardener, a car for the estate agent, a car for the head groom and a car for Cyril Harris himself. The Astors had for their own use a Phantom II and later a Silver Cloud which has now gone to the Lord Mayor of Maidenhead. This car was Cyril Harris’s favourite. Besides his car he had a cottage on the estate and a flat in London – free. In addition he went abroad a lot with the Astors to Denmark, France and elsewhere in Europe but he felt this was unfair to his wife who sometimes didn’t see him for months at a time. So, although the job was good, and his son was happy at the local school, he decided it was time to move on.

In 1958 he left Cliveden and came to see about a job at Rediffusion. He was employed on a temporary basis on the Wembley mail run for some time and then he drove the sound and camera crews. He enjoyed the work very much, and soon became permanent on the mail run.

During his career Cyril Harris has driven just about every vehicle possible. In the early days he drove motor bikes – some of which had no proper gears. The cars he has driven are also varied. Some were chain driven, some had friction drive, and included, of course, Bentleys, Rolls, a T Model Ford, and a Le Mans Bentley.

Now he drives a ’65 Anglia. He says: ‘I like any of the smaller cars except the Mini – I have had enough of big cars, you might as well drive a bus with the traffic like it is today.’

However, even though he disapproves of the traffic he still likes to drive and always goes on a motoring holiday. He and his wife potter off in any direction that takes their fancy. They don’t make any plans, eating in pubs or having a picnic and stopping when and where they like. ‘You see much more of your country like that, and you enjoy it more because you’ve found it yourself and any surprises or beauties are quite unexpected. We don’t go abroad because my wife isn’t too keen on the sea or flying.’

Looking back over his life Cyril Harris says: ‘Life at Rediffusion is so much freer than the life I led in the old days, the atmosphere of the commercial world is much more informal and relaxed, but I don’t want to go on chauffeuring after I retire next year, because nowadays there isn’t really any private service as such. All drivers are attached to firms and it is not the same thing at all.

‘In any case there is not the same atmosphere on the roads as there used to be – no friendliness – in the old days if you were stuck by the side of the road with a puncture someone would stop and help, but now if anyone stopped they’d be more likely to bang you over the head and steal your money than help you.

‘No, if I had a choice now I’d go into the electronics side of TV and wireless, I’ve always been interested in that. Still, I would say that I have had a good living, been well paid and well fed. I have stopped in some of the best hotels in Europe and I’ve seen a lot more than most people of my generation. Nowadays the kids have got enough money to go abroad, but in my young days it was almost unheard of. Overall I’ve spent more time out of my home than in it. In fact it is only since I’ve been with Rediffusion that I’ve been able to enjoy the home comforts.’ Rediffusion Television and Cyril Harris will be retiring from business at approximately the same time next year, but Cyril Harris has the advantage: he will be driving where he likes for quite a time to come.