The Timmis family proudly celebrates 75 years and five generations of cherished history with ‘Gladys’, their 1903 Gladiator, as they prepare to enter the iconic RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2025.
The family’s journey with Gladys began in 1950, when Howard Timmis – an apprentice-trained engineer at Rolls Royce and owner of a 1910 10-20HP Mercedes – set out to acquire a Brighton-eligible car. He discovered the 1903 Gladiator for sale in Clapton-in-Gordano, near Bristol. At the time, the car was incomplete, reportedly used as a milk float and even as transport for a Gloucestershire cricket team.
Howard, with the help of mechanic Ted Petley and joiner Snellgrove, undertook a full restoration. New ash wood was fitted into the chassis, a missing carburettor sourced, and a third gear fabricated at Rolls Royce by Howard’s friend Carl Parkinson. With the original registration plate too corroded to identify, Gladys was issued the number RYC700. She debuted on the 1954 London to Brighton Run with Howard and his son Richard as entrant #185 – successfully completing the journey and starting a family tradition that has endured for generations.
Between 1954 and his untimely death in 1972, Howard and Richard entered 11 runs, completing eight. Early challenges included frequent tyre failures, as they were unaware of the extremely high pressures needed for the beaded edge tyres. On one occasion, Richard recalled being overtaken by one of their own loose tyres.
Gladys’s transport was initially improvised, using a horse trailer towed by a cousin’s Land Rover. Eventually, a bespoke trailer was built from the axle of a Bedford truck and a tilting hospital bed frame – a setup still in use today, though not without mishaps. On one journey, the trailer detached, colliding with a white van, thankfully without injury.
Richard carried on the tradition, entering another 30 runs until 2004 and successfully completing all but one. The Timmis family’s runs typically began in Yeovil at 2:00 am, with breakfast in Andover before arriving at Hyde Park by dawn. Celebrations in Brighton often included meals at a Chinese restaurant, where wine was discreetly served in teapots due to licensing restrictions of the day.
Over time, more of the family joined, including Richard’s wife and their children. A pivotal moment came when a vehicle historian identified that RYC700 was not the correct registration. With clues from the carved name ‘Wooliams’ on the wooden steering wheel, research traced the original Gloucestershire number, AD448, which was successfully reissued by the DVLA.
Since 2004, Gladys has been driven by Richard’s children – Nigel, John, and Chris – and more recently by grandson Alastair, Nigel’s son. Across 17 more entries, she has completed 14, often carrying nieces, nephews, partners, and friends along the way. On one occasion, a supporter in Hyde Park shared that his elderly mother, also named Gladys, kept a photograph of the Gladiator in her care home, creating yet another touching family connection.
To date, Gladys has been entered in 60 runs, started 54 times, and successfully completed 50. In 2025, the family hopes to achieve her 51st successful run – celebrating 75 years with the Timmis family.
This year’s run will mark a new milestone as the fifth generation joins the journey: two-year-old Aiden, Richard’s great-grandson, will ride along. To commemorate Gladys’s special place in family life, a sculpture of the Gladiator was commissioned and installed in Richard’s garden.
“Gladys has been more than just a car – she’s been the thread connecting five generations of our family through heritage motoring,” said Nigel Timmis. “We hope this tradition will continue for as long as internal combustion motoring on our roads is celebrated.”
The RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Run is the concluding highlight of the Royal Automobile Club’s busy London Motor Week, featuring seven days packed with motoring events and celebrations in the capital city.
These include the Art of Motoring exhibition held at the Iconic Images Gallery in Piccadilly (29 October – 1 November), the free-to-attend St James’s Motoring Spectacle (Saturday 1 November) staged on Pall Mall which is closed to through traffic and a series of high profile lectures in the Club’s London clubhouse on Pall Mall as well as notable industry and awards dinners. RM Sotheby’s London Sale also returns to The Peninsula London on Saturday 1 November with some notable collector’s cars coming under the hammer. A full list of London Motoring Week events can be found here.
Full details of the 2025 RM Sotheby’s London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (Sunday 2 November) including entries and route details are available on the event website at www.veterancarrun.com.
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