Family Hero
Douglas Edwards’ ancestor entered the record books by riding a velocipede from London to Edinburgh in only 12 days, says Adam Rees
Douglas Edwards recalls an inspiring cycling pioneer
These days racing cyclists are a common sight on our roads, whether for fun, for charity or as part of a more serious competition. However, this wasn’t the case in 1869 when villagers in northern England saw a man sitting on a strange, two-wheeled metal contraption speeding along the pothole-marked roads mostly used by horses and carts. They would have been even more shocked if they’d known he was on his way from London to Edinburgh on what was the first ever endurance feat of its type.
The man was Robert Klamroth. Born in 1840 in Cottbus, northeast Germany, he had already made one great journey to the UK from his homeland, for reasons explained by his great great grandson Douglas Edwards.
“His family were Calvinistic Prussians, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he came to the UK to get away from the recruiting of the Prussian army,” Douglas says. “I found some documents here in Germany which show he was being conscripted to fight against the French, and he clearly didn’t want to do that. So I think that, supported by his mother, he made his way swiftly to England.”
Robert ended up in Liverpool, becoming a translator and foreign correspondent, and meeting and marrying Catherine Edwards. Douglas faced some challenges discovering more about Robert’s time in England, given a lack of knowledge of this branch of the family – and a change of name.
“My mother knew nothing about the Klamroth side. She thought it was spelled ‘Clamroth’, and was Scottish. We believe that the family changed their name in 1914 because of the anti-German feeling during the First World War – my great grandfather’s shop had some rocks thrown at it.”
‘One time when something went wrong he had to go to a blacksmith to get it fixed’
However, the ‘Gem from the Archive’ article in the August 2018 issue of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, showcasing the diary of a Victorian cyclist, reminded Douglas of a family legend about Robert, and prompted him to search the British Newspaper Archive for his name ( britishnewspaperarchive. co.uk). Robert had a passion for bicycles, and found a way to combine his hobby with an income through his work for the manufacturing company Newton, Wilson and Co. Having developed a new model of what was then known as a velocipede, Robert envisaged a publicity stunt to whip up some attention: he would ride 400 miles from London to the Scottish capital.
Setting off on the state-of-theart vehicle in his formal work clothes on rickety roads (the newspaper articles reveal that he thought those in Scotland were better), Robert cycled in 10–12 hour stints to complete the journey in only 12 days. A full journal of the expedition in the Edinburgh Evening Courant gives a remarkable account, with surprisingly few gripes from Robert about the contraption that at the time was nicknamed ‘the boneshaker’.
“Robert only had a couple of aches and pains, until near the end when his knees were hurting and he needed to find people to help him climb down if he wanted to stop,” says Douglas. “One time when something went wrong he had to go to a blacksmith to get it fixed. And to manage it all on a diet of steak, eggs and sherry, and in those clothes…! He must have been doing 12 mph downhill, and maybe 6 mph uphill.”
Robert certainly made an impact when he arrived at the Edinburgh Fair, and even challenged someone to an immediate five-mile race as another stunt – although it’s no surprise in the circumstances that he lost. His love of cycling had an enormous influence on the next generation, too: “His son Thomas was so passionate about it that he made bicycles all his life until he died in the 1930s.”