| Notes |
- # Obituary: Claudia Parsons
ON A trip to Canada in her seventies, Claudia Parsons was being driven by a much younger male relative on a busy freeway when they had a flat tyre. Parsons' instinct was to leap out of the car saying "Where's the jack?" This wasn't affectation - such a minor running repair would have been nothing to one of the first three women to graduate in engineering in England (from Loughborough) soon after the First World War. At her death she was the oldest member of the Society of Women Engineers.
She was born in 1900 in the Indian hill station of Simla; her Anglo-Irish father was a major in the Indian Staff Corps. At the age of three, Claudia and her older sister Betty were taken to England and left in the care of an overbearing, temperamental and sometimes cruel aunt. On her father's death when she was 12, her overriding emotion was "relief that our mother would now be permanently home".
In her fluently written, funny and often gripping autobiography, Century Story (1995), written in her nineties, Parsons charts her full and adventurous life: her numerous travels at a time when it was rare for women to travel at all, and certainly not alone, as she did, or in the company of men to whom they weren't married, as she did; and her ways of earning money (of which she was always short) as a chauffeur-companion-mechanic for wealthy adventurers and, more lucratively, as a writer. ("Writing was almost a disease in the Parsons family.")
Aside from writing stories and travel pieces, she had considerable success with her 1936 novel Brighter Bondage and with her travel book Vagabondage (1941). The latter was only prevented from running into a third reprint by the shortage of paper during the Second World War, when she worked in a munitions factory (as a skilled engineer), where her sense of justice prompted her to take her boss to court on behalf of a fellow worker. She also later had a spell as a china restorer, which spawned a manual.
When she was 10, she was among the crowd who watched the royal procession on the occasion of George V's coronation. The man next to her told her to tell her grandchildren that she had witnessed this scene standing next to a veteran of the Crimean War. But Claudia never had grandchildren. She never married. On being asked why not during a newspaper interview she gave at the age of 95, she said of men, "They very often threatened to stop me doing what I wanted to do."
There were certainly love affairs and there were many strong friendships with men. There was the diplomat who "had decided never to marry . . . as he was a non-marrying man, and as I was myself a bit of a loner and could understand his feelings, I decided to be a non-marrying wife, to meet and live with him whenever chance offered . . ." and there was the wacky and fun Kilton Stewart, an American psychoanalyst she encountered by chance on a bus in Angkor when she had uncharacteristically miscalculated her funds and ended up travelling free by sitting on the mailbags.
He then resurfaced in Calcutta, where Parsons was staying with her younger sister Avis and her husband, and together they bought a second-hand 1925 Studebaker and in April 1938 embarked on a hugely eventful journey masterminded by her back to England, which took them via India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
There were countless breakdowns, the reasons for them succinctly described ("It was a worn seating in which the distributor shaft was mounted"). Being a car lover, she often referred to her cars in anthropomorphic terms ("Thanks to Baker's patient nature . . .") but she was never a car bore. As for the nature of her relationship with Kilton, she left us guessing.
Parson's sketches of people encountered on her travels were never cruel, but always made their point: on a voyage from Vancouver to Yokohama (where the war against China was raging and she, having had all her money stolen, sold her clothes and wrote articles for the Japan Times to earn more), she wrote:
I had a missionary in my cabin going to convert the Chinese . . . and she practised meanwhile on me. God, however, came to my rescue by rocking the boat, when preacher and subject fell sick. Conversion was postponed.
When not travelling, Parsons returned to the Elizabethan house in the village of Wonersh, near Guildford, where she lived with her mother, aunt (still feared, but loved) and sister Betty from 1924 onwards. Betty (who also had the writing disease) once described Claudia as "one who had broken the ice of convention that held women down to certain jobs but denied them others, and at a time when to the majority of people the world was unknown". And it was Betty who urged her, long before her own death in 1986, to write her autobiography.
Betty's seal of approval was very important to Claudia, who despite being one of the most capable, well-read, funny and dignified people I have ever met, had a ridiculously self-deprecating view of herself as "a clownish character and a charlatan in most of the jobs I took up".
Even though the more infuriating aspects of old age forced Claudia Parsons to move into a home over a year ago, the emotional self-sufficiency, indomitable common sense and sense of humour which had seen her through so many journeys, stood her in good stead and she never once complained nor appeared to pine for the house she'd lived in for over 70 years, which contained a lot of furniture made by her.
Soon after she moved, I visited her and e-mailed my sister in the States: "I expected to feel terribly depressed, but instead came away, as I always do having seen Claudia, feeling nourished, uplifted and happy."
Claudia Parsons, writer and traveller: born Simla, India 15 August 1900; died Cranleigh, Surrey 5 June 1998.
[Obituary: Claudia Parsons](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-claudia-parsons-1167736.html)
The Independent 26 Jun 1998
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-claudia-parsons-1167736.html
# About Claudia | Claudia Parsons
#people/parsons/claudia
Wonersh
Claudia was born in India in August 1900, and throughout her life frequently challenged stereotypes, overcame adversity and pursued her passions. The attributes she showed throughout her life are ones that we hope that all Claudia Parsons Hall residents can embrace, show and benefit from during their time at Loughborough and beyond.
In 1919, she was one of only three women in a class of 300 to be inducted onto the Loughborough Technical College Automobile Engineering course.
After graduating in 1922, she worked as a chauffeur-companion, driving clients around Europe. She did this alongside writing, with her first book, ‘Brighter Bondage’, seeing huge success after being published in 1935.
In 1938, she bought a Studebaker car, which she affectionately nicknamed ‘Baker’. This kickstarted her most notable achievement and symbolised her great spirit of adventure – to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by car – a journey which she completed later in the decade.
Throughout her trip, she showed her initiative and desire to overcome obstacles, often travelled unaccompanied or with men to whom she wasn’t married – both of which challenged the established norms of the time. Never During the trip, she had to sell many of her possessions and work for a newspaper to raise funds to continue her journey and travelled into China whilst there was a war raging in the country.
According to her family, this ability to persevere highlighted her “unquenchable optimism” and her “courage in all her travels and undertakings.” Her continued desire to push herself to achieve her goals showed how she never feared failure. However, she did this not because she wanted fame or accolades, but because she saw no reason why she couldn’t.
After her trip, she wrote a second book – the autobiography, ‘Vagabondage’ – in 1941. Her sense of justice came to the fore in the Second World War, where she was fired from her job as a munitions worker for defending a female colleague who was the victim of harassment.
A third book followed in 1965, before her second autobiography, ‘Century Story’, was published in 1995 – when Claudia was in her 90s. On her 90th birthday, the residents of her village, Wonersh, Surrey, threw a party for her, highlighting her popularity amongst those around her. At her death, she was the oldest member of the Women’s Engineering Society, an organisation she had been a part of since her university days.
Claudia’s achievements were deservedly acknowledged through the opening of Claudia Parsons Hall of Residence on 19th June 2019.
We hope all residents in the Hall can be inspired by her independent mind, forward thinking, spirit of adventure, courage and humour. She shall be remembered for her belief that the established way isn’t always the right way, and we are privileged to continue her legacy at Loughborough.
[About Claudia | Claudia Parsons](https://www.cplboro.com/claudia) Loughborough University named its latest hall of residence
We are the newest hall in Loughborough University, named after Claudia Parsons, an English engineer, traveller and Loughborough alumna. Claudia attended the University from 1919 - 1922, graduating with an Automotive Engineering degree, and as one of just three women on a course of 300 men. Following this, Claudia became a highly respected member of the Women’s Engineering Society, and the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by car
# Claudia Parsons
Wonersh History
https://web.archive.org/web/20200304103555/http://www.wonershhistory.co.uk/claudia-parsons.htm
# IET Archives Blog
#people/parsons/claudia
Claudia Parsons (1900-1998)
The image above shows Claudia Parsons, with her second-hand 1925 Studebaker car, which she called Baker, and her travelling companion Kilton Stewart. Claudia and Kilton bought the car for £30 in Calcutta in April 1938, before setting off on a journey back to England, planned by Claudia, which took them via India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The photograph above was taken in London just before Claudia sold the car towards the end of 1938.
Claudia, who had been born in Simla, India, 15 August 1900, earned money as a chauffeur-companion-mechanic for wealthy adventurers and as a writer. Other than writing stories and travel pieces she wrote a novel in 1936 called /Brighter Bondage/ and a book about her travels called /Vagabondage/, published in 1941, from which the above image is taken, both of which were very successful. /Vagabondage/ was about to be reprinted for a third time and the only reason for this not happening was the shortage of paper during WWII. In the meantime, during WWII Claudia worked in a munitions factory (as a skilled engineer).
*Who was Claudia Parsons!*
Our interest in Claudia has multiple origins. Firstly Claudia was a member of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and had been since 1919 when WES was formed, and she wrote several articles for the WES journal /The Woman Engineer/ including;
* ‘What not to do: when motoring abroad’, vol.3, no.3, June 1930.
* ‘The Ford Works, Dagenham: impressions of a visit’, vol.3, no.14, March 1933.
* ‘Baker, the anthropologist and Claudia Parsons’, vol.4 no.19, June 1939. This was an account of Claudia’s travels, later covered in /Vagabondage/, which Claudia had given to WES at its meeting held 8 March 1939.
* ‘Back to the old job’, vol.5 no.4, autumn 1940. In this article Claudia, who had studied engineering at Loughborough Engineering College, describes her 3 month ‘engineering reconditioning’ course at the Beaufoy Institute, Lambeth. The image below, taken from this article, shows Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, talking to Claudia Parsons (shown in overalls) and Caroline Haslett during her visit to the Beaufoy Institute.
[image:23D2CAAB-32D5-480F-8549-21D01EF77253-1633-0000015883FD3A52/twe-vol-5-no-04-page-056-claudia-parsons.jpg]
Another reason for our interest in Claudia is that we hold 3 of Claudia’s books in the IET Archives, /Brighter Bondage/ and /Vagabondage/ mentioned above, and also Claudia’s autobiography, /Century Story/, published in 1995.
Claudia was clearly a fascinating individual with a sharp mind and a strong sense of humour. She dedicated her first book, Brighter Bondage, ‘to my husbands’, but Claudia never married, and on being asked why she hadn’t married during a newspaper interview she gave at the age of 95, she said of men, “ /they very often threatened to stop me doing what I wanted to do/ ”.
Of particular interest amongst these 3 books is our copy of Vagabondage, which contains a letter from Claudia. In that letter, dated 9 December 1985 and sent to ‘James’, Claudia explains that this copy of Vagabondage was ‘ /my last and sacred copy of Vagabondage/ ’. Claudia also discusses her former travelling companion Kilton Stewart in the letter and says;
“ /I did have a second copy [of Vagabondage] I was meaning to lend you. But just at that time I got a letter from one, Pamela Kay Stewart – Kilton’s daughter, no less – saying she had lately been staying with her uncle Omer, Kilton’s youngest brother, had seen this book, and was now in England hoping to see me, and was there any hope of getting a copy of the book?/
/You can see what happened. A small, perky, rather charming little 35-year-old turned up; very intelligent. No facial resemblance to her father. I had not known there was a daughter, though I knew Kilton had so far escaped from his tyrannical secretary, at one period to get married. She couldn’t take the secretary, so they got divorced. Pamela, when not travelling the world or taking post-graduate courses, lived with her mother, but wanted to know more about her father as she was only ten when he died./ ”
The complete letter with Claudia’s signature can be seen below.
[image:5F60972C-5C53-4281-9717-A0F6B4CFA709-1633-0000015883FB596C/sc-mss-309-01-pages-1-and-2.jpg]
For those interested in reading more about Claudia, an [obituary](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-claudia-parsons-1167736.html) for Claudia, written by Emma Parsons, was published in the /Independent/, 27 June 1998. The Claudia Parsons books and her letter (archive reference SC MSS 309/1) can be consulted in the IET Archives at Savoy Hill House, London, by appointment.
[Claudia Parsons (1900-1998)](https://ietarchivesblog.org/2019/05/01/claudia-parsons-1900-1998/)
# IET Archives Blog
[IET Archives Blog](https://ietarchivesblog.org/)
Stories from the Institution of Engineering and Technology
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1900 - 1998 (97 years)
[1] 