From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
ARE YOU RIGHT THERE, PERCY. . .: It seems that Percy French is one of those artists in whose work there is always a strong interest. Much has been written about his life and artistic work, but there is another, less well-known side to Percy French.
Percy French had embraced the cycling boom which swept Ireland in the 1880s and became a regular contributor to The Irish Cyclist, edited by RJ Mecredy. Almost all of his contributions were made under the pen-name of 'Will Wagtale' and were almost entirely of a humourous nature. In the heyday of The Irish Cyclist between 1885 and 1900 hardly a week went by without a contribution from Percy French, and clearly he was a reader's favourite. However, it wasn't always plain sailing! Mecredy recalled that in 1889 he went on a cycle tour of Scotland and left The Irish Cyclist in the editorial hands of Percy, a decision he was to regret. Mecredy later told what happened: "On my return I found a sheaf of indignant letters from cyclists who had written for advice on various matters, and who complained that they had been insulted and made fools of. It appears that French, who was incapable of answering most of the conundrums put, had turned the 'Answers to Correspondents' page into a sort of comic discourse, using the letters received as a text. It amused those who had not asked questions immensely, but the victims failed to see the humour of the situation."
When, in 1900, Mecredy founded the Motor News, Percy contributed to it also. Over the following years and indeed, even after he had moved to England, and almost right up to his death in 1920, French continued to contribute his own particular style of humour to both of Mecredy's journals. To our eyes today, some of that humour seems contrived and artificial, but on other occasions it hit the spot perfectly as in this extract from his wonderful motoring parody on 'The Song of Hiawatha'.
In this extract, Hiawatha is coming under pressure from the love of his life, Minnehaha, to buy a motor:
"Motors cost a lot of money," Said the cautious Hiawatha; "Even when you do the driving, There's the upkeep and the petrol."
"Half the Narragansetts have them,"
Murmured Minnehaha, pouting; "Half the Crows and all the Blackfeet, All the Hurons and Comanchees
Have a runabout or sidecar."
So the hapless Hiawatha
Said that he would see about it."
In addition to his knowledgeable contributions to these journals, French also wrote several songs on the theme of motoring, the best-known of which was Jim Wheelehan's Automobeel. This was written to cash in on the interest and excitement generated by the coming of the Gordon Bennett Race to Ireland in 1903. In the week leading up to the race, French entertained the British team of SF Edge, JW Stocks and Charles Jarrott on the lawns of Rheban Castle, their headquarters near Athy for the race. Jim Wheelehan's Automobeel, Charles Jarrott recalled many years later, with its mention of Edge, drew howls of laughter from the assembled company. One imagines that Percy French, in his own inimitable fashion, brought similar joy and laughter to several generations of readers of The Irish Cyclist and the Motor News in those early days of two and four wheeled transport.