1935 'Star Special'

J & A Baxter
9 Washington Street
Anderston Cross
Glasgow

After the end of World War I, Britain experienced a massive downturn in trade. The Washington post-war agreements on Naval Fleet reductions worldwide, made this all the more acute in Glasgow and directly affected the Clyde shipyards who were so heavily reliant on the work.

The boom era of the war period was closely followed in the early 1920's by a drastic shortage of new orders. As a result a large number of shipyards and support companies closed down and many skilled engineering workers were laid off.

John Hamilton worked as a foreman at a Glasgow patternmaking company and when in 1924 the company collapsed, he decided to set up in business for himself. With his wife Hannah he opened a cycle shop 'J & A Baxter' at 9 Washington Street, Anderston Cross, Glasgow. 

Apart from the traditional retail side, John built his own frames in the workshop at the rear of the shop. Sold as the Baxter 'Star' These were primarily racing machines, of either lugged or fillet brazed construction and used Reynolds lightweight tubing. Perhaps a measure of their popularity can be seen, in that by 1928 he had produced over 300 frames. He did not restrict himself to conventional diamond frames however, as he also produced at least one racing tricycle and a number of tandems. No small achievement for a one-man operation.

John was also a well known cyclist and local racer and among his achievements were a number of Scottish road records, including the gold medal seen here from the Douglas Cycle Club, given in recognition of his part in setting a new 100 mile Time Trial tandem record. He and Archie set the record in 1919 in a time of 5 hrs 8m 17 sec.

This contemporary newspaper report from June 1927 of John Hamilton and Archie Baxters 50 mile tandem record gives a fascinating if not amusing insight in to the problems faced not only by the riders, but the officials who had to car out the intermediate and final time checks ;

Record-breaking thrills,

"J. Hamilton and A. Baxter, Douglas C.C. and Scottish Nomads, present holders of the tandem "fifty" record, were successful in their effort to establish a tandem Glasgow to Edinburgh and back record last Sunday. To obviate their returning to Glasgow C.P.O. at a time when the streets would be fairly busy with traffic, they started at Auchenshuggle at 5 a.m. and finished at Auchenshuggle at 9.30.41 a.m. , thus beating the existing single record established by C. Hill in 1912, by practically 24 minutes. At Whitburn the car conveying the timekeeper and official observer had a puncture, but the officials managed to change into a car, which carried two cyclists of other days, Messrs. Herd and Nathaniel, of the old Edinburgh Vulcan Club, who, having acted as check at Mid-Calder, were now following the record-breakers to Glasgow. At Mount Vernon the motorists had just "jumped" the tandemists to enable the timekeeper to be present at the finish, when Bang! away went a front tyre. No time in which to change a wheel, for the tandem was already overhauling the stranded followers. Frantically the timekeeper Mr Miller seized a bicycle belonging to Mr Herd, which had been strapped to the rear of the car, and pedalled furiously in an effort to cover the remaining three miles before the arrival of the record pair at the finish. No use. With a swishing of tyres the tandem flashed past Mr Miller, who no doubt must have been praying to the patron saint of record-breakers, for just at this crucial moment a providentially driven "bus" appeared on the scene, and the driver taking Mr Miller aboard, obligingly accelerated from his usual thirty to fifty, landing him in time to check them in....."

The last few words from the newspaper cutting were missing, however "Jock" Miller timed them in at 4 hr. 30 min. 41 secs." The record only stood for a fortnight, being broken on 26th June 1927 by R. Thomson and R. McGregor in a time of 4 hr. 29 min. 30 sec.

In 1928 both John and David Rattray were Vice Presidents of the Road Records Association of Scotland and later in the 1930's he was an R.R.A. timekeeper. When in November 1934 The Lomond Roads Cycle Club was founded , one former member considers that the new club's first and undoubtedly wisest decision was "to invite John to be its first President, for he proved invaluable in his advice on every aspect of cycling and of management."

John was an innovative builder and introduced chrome-plated fork ends, an idea that was rapidly taken up by other builders in the area. He was fortunate in that the plating shop of David Barbour & Co was conveniently located just across Argyle St. from his shop.  Barbours were also responsible for the plating on his all-chrome 'Star' Often frames were built "to specification", in that a customer could request specific angles between the tubes. John, using both his knowledge and experience, would refuse an order if he felt that the angles requested would not be satisfactory. One customer whom he turned down took his order elsewhere and no doubt it gave him some satisfaction when the resultant machine proved to be a failure.

For the first Scottish cycle show for 30 years in January 1935, John produced two 'Star' show models. One, a "Star Special" was subsequently displayed at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery as part of a 'Cycling through the years' exhibition and from there it was passed to the Glasgow Museum of Transport, also now at Kelvingrove where it remains on display to the public as seen below and in the photograph above.

This "show" machine weighed 6.8 kg (15 lbs) and even though it was an out-and-out race machine, is extremely light for the time. Much of this is down to the use of aluminium alloy components and the recent innovation of Reynolds '531' frame tubing, but also through the handbuilt cantilever brakes of John's own design, using an alloy brake lever as seen here on the left of the screen. Also of particular note is the depth of the flamboyant finish, achieved by applying the translucent blue colour coats over the top of dull nickel plating ;

One misconception that often creeps in to cycling history is the origin of the name for his shop and cycles. The 'Baxter' name came about through his marriage to Hannah. Using her maiden name in preference to his own not only was a compliment to the Baxter family who were well known in the Anderson area but also to build on the success of his racing partnership with his brother-in-law Archie Baxter.

Archie did work for him for a short period when he too was made redundant from the Shipyards. Though he didn't construct any frames, he was employed to help with the finishing however when the Yard's were taking workers back on, Archie returned to work there. Through the life of the business, John Hamilton was both the founder and sole owner.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, steel for bicycles became all but unobtainable and without high quality frame tubes a number of small Scottish bicycle companies had to close their doors. Both John and David Rattray's companies faced the same problem but Jack Smith was fortunate enough to get a war contract to make pins for Bailey Bridges. Lacking the necessary engineering experience himself, Jack asked John to join Rattray's and take charge of the workshop. As his own business was no longer viable, in 1941 John closed the doors and went to work at Murray Street. To complete the war order, they installed a number of lathes, and John trained some women who had been employed to operate the machines in addition to the trained turners they had taken on. As a result they made (literally) thousands of Bailey bridge pins. After the end of the war Jack Smith got a contract to supply cycles to British Guiana, and around 1947/48 Rattray's bought another shop (formerly Malcolm Smith's) on the High Street in Glasgow. The shop was staffed initially by John's wife Hannah, and Lottie Smith Jacks wife. John staying on at Murray Street in charge of frame building.

Reg Harris, John Hamilton & Jack Smith

Shortly before John left Rattrays he built a mixte frame, for the wife of four-times World Sprint Champion Reg Harris, as seen in the photographs on this page. During 1946, the Baxter 'Star' name was also resurrected - John building a few frames having brought the original frame transfers with him when he closed his own shop, and Rattray's themselves applying it to another model. In 1951, John's daughter emigrated to New Zealand, and later that year he himself followed with Hannah. Not however before producing a final Baxter 'Star' that was sent out ahead of him for his daughter.

 

 

 

 

John Hamilton, John Smith, Reg Harris, Jack Smith and possibly a Raleigh official accompanying Reg.


Photographs & Information Courtesy of the Dr Mary Hamilton