70 EDITION 198 JAGUAR MAGAZINE
her passing in 1958. Trevor's birth father died there in 1962. Both
had to be acutely aware by then their first son, 'Jack Bryson' was a
devoted family man and dynamic successful businessman.
In 1911 Trevor moved to Sydney from Auckland with the rest
of the Barron family, but in the same year Ada demanded him
back! The boy was devastated, and in what had to be a painful
journey, Ruby delivered him to Melbourne by train. Trevor was so
traumatised he refused to leave his bedroom, so Ada returned him
to the Barrons. In response, he and Ruby sailed back to Auckland
where he was educated by the Christian Brothers. Parents Sandy
and Louisa remained in Sydney with the rest of their children.
Trevor quit school at fifteen, taking on tough back-breaking
manual work as a flax cutter along the wetland of the Waikato River,
south of Auckland. His first big break into a secure and better-
paying future came when he was offered the chance to earn a Marine
Engineer’s Ticket and graduate from a machete into the exciting
engine room of working steam boats. Somebody recognised his
potential. As soon as he had his Ticket he left with Ruby for Sydney.
Trevor made several trips back to Auckland, but by 1922 was
ensconced in Sydney where he fathered a girl, Aliece Ellen, known
inside the Bryson family as Peggy. At twenty-one he married
seventeen year old Eileen Partridge, Peggy’s mother, but that didn’t
last and they parted. Peggy remained with her father.
Then when Trevor learned his Maori cousin Gwen, a Morton, was
trapped in an unhappy marriage, he sailed to Auckland and they
eloped back to Sydney! She was Gwendoline Edith Alexina Aylett,
known as Aliex or Trox. Trevor exercised his very strong will!
In a twist of irony to match her father, Peggy grew up believing
Trox was her natural mother until she was told at the age of twelve
that she was the daughter of an Eileen Partridge. Cruelly, after they
met, Eileen informed her daughter she didn’t want to see her again.
During WW2 Peggy met a US Air Force serviceman on leave in
Australia, married him and lived in the US for the rest of her life
with their children. As Peggy Collins, she died in Alabama in 1999.
John Bryson: “Sydney’s roadways were becoming as busy with
motor vehicles as with horse drays and sulkies by the early 1920s.
The rich were importing vehicles driven by chauffeurs, and Trevor’s
engineer’s ticket qualified him for a chauffeuring position with one
of those wealthy families. His engineering capacity also allowed
him to manufacture replacement parts using a metalwork lathe, and
made him popular in an age when items from Europe and the US
were delayed for ten or twelve weeks while they were shipped.
“These families holidayed in Britain during the southern winter,
a place they called ‘home’, leaving their Australian residences inthe care of their housekeepers. The limousines were left with
their chauffeurs to maintain, but in their absence, they sometimes
got together to form a convoy heavily made up of freeloaders and
attractive women, all headed for the Blue Mountains.
“Trevor’s driving friends included actor Errol Flynn, Auckland-
born Jack Davey, soon to become Sydney’s Australian radio quiz
king in the glorious days of radio (and a D-Type owner), plus a
young New Zealand passenger, Frank Quinn, famed as hypnotist,
The Great Franquin. Their convoys were notorious, and hosteliers
regularly refused to serve them! Asked how they got service, Quinn
replied: ‘It is remarkable how quickly service arrives if you take out
your little shooter, and ping the bottles on the shelf.’
“With Aliex and toddler Peggy, Trevor moved to Melbourne in the
late 1920s where he found work as a car salesman. He also bought a
motorcycle to deliver film reels between cinemas, changed his name
to Trevor Raymond Barron-Bryson, then John Barron-Bryson. The
family lived cheaply in a studio room rental, but in short time he
founded a small engineering shop with one lathe, one employee,
fathered John, and sadly, lost a daughter, Lois Fleur, at birth.” It is
unknown where the Bryson handle originated.
John Bryson had luxury when he was a chauffeur, and wanted
better. So he began his serious tilt into the car industry by partnering
with Walter Lawson in 1933 to establish Brylaw Motors south of the
Melbourne city. Walter’s wife Ruby was officially his business partner
because Walter worked for Australian Customs. They purchased the
Mandalay Garage on the Upper Esplanade in St Kilda, followed by
Brylaw’s Carlyon Garage in the Melbourne CBD.
John: “At the outbreak of WW2 their machine shop was proscribed,
meaning Jack was not permitted to join the services. He produced
essential parts for defence vehicles and aeroplanes. Arthur Miller’s
play ‘All My Sons’ describes his circumstances precisely! He also
designed and built a small petrol marine engine, the Commando, for
use in remote warfare. It could withstand an air-drop, contamination
and other types of ill treatment. Then success against the Japanese
allowed his military classification to change, so he joined the AIF,
was trained at Officers School and commissioned in the Transport
Division. He became a Captain, and was demobbed after War’s end.”
His future belonged in transport, and Carlyon’s Garage (leased by
Brylaw Motors) at the top of Bourke Street was close to the major
Spencer Street Railway Station.
The Carlyon was a large hotel in Spencer Street, which utilised
the Brylaw garage for its guests who could have their vehicles
serviced, repaired or cleaned. Brylaw’s sold Bentleys, Vauxhalls,
Alvis, Packards, Buicks, Rovers and other prestigious models.(^01 03)
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