Tom Barrett

Thomas Barrett (21 November 1891 – 27 September 1924) was an English motor-racing riding mechanic. His death in the 1924 San Sebastian Grand Prix brought an end to the practice of riding mechanics in two-seat racing cars. Racing in this early period was conducted between unreliable cars over long road courses, rather than by repeated laps of a dedicated short circuit. There was no nearby "pit lane" in which to conduct repairs and so it was necessary to carry a mechanic on board the car. Life and early career Barrett was born in 1891, at Prestwood Road, Heath Town, Wolverhampton, one of nine children. His father, George Barrett, had been born in rural Essex but came to Wolverhampton and worked in engineering factories. Tom and his eldest brother William served apprenticeships at the pump-making factory of Joseph Evans & Sons, where their father also worked. During the First World War, Barrett worked at Guy Motors. Rather than Guy's better-known lorries, this work was on small mechanisms such as fuses for depth charges. As with Barrett's future driver, Kenelm Lee Guinness, this war-work was sufficiently important to excuse military service during the war.