Gryphon Gallery: Christopher Yarrow (Pinckard)

October 6, 2023

Alumni

Stuart Brambley, Archivist Stuart Brambley, Archivist photo

His parents were William Frederick Pinckard(Glenlyon Alumni 1933-40) and Cynthia Hope Yarrow. Chris attended Glenlyon Prep. School (GNS) from 1966-74, graduating after Grade 10 with the Grade Effort Prize, the McDowall Shield for Character and Conduct, and as a member of the Senior Cross-country and Sailing teams. By that time, he was already fascinated with stories and photos of his maternal grandfather’s 1930 Packard automobile. He never met his grandfather as Norman Alfred Yarrow died in London in 1955, but his interest in that side of the family was such that he even changed his birth name to Yarrow.

His grandfather was sent to Victoria in 1912 by his father, Sir Alfred Yarrow, an English marine engineer who had become a shipbuilding magnate, to take over an existing shipyard in Esquimalt. Norman expanded the shipyard business to over 4,000 people building and repairing ships of all kinds. In 1930, Norman Yarrow saw a new Packard 740 four-door convertible Phaeton at Plimley Motors, which in those days was on the site where Moxie’s Restaurant now stands. The top-line luxury car had a pale yellow body with black fenders, a black leather interior and a special tonneau windshield to protect rear passengers. When he inquired about the fuel economy the massive car would deliver, a condescending car salesman replied: “Sir, if you have to ask, you likely can’t afford it”. Yarrow was offended but went back two days later and shelled out $10,000 to buy the car. Used largely as a family summer car, it would later have the honour of carrying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during the first royal visit to Victoria in 1939.

When he was fourteen, Chris took a photo of that royal occasion to Classic Car Museum owner, Murray Gammon, the father of two school friends and he took one look and immediately came up with the name and phone number of the current owner of the car. It set Chris off on a fourteen-year mission to eventually acquire the former family luxury automobile, placing it in storage at his grandmother’s Uplands home.

In 1988, he went north looking for work as a bush pilot and ended up in the Northwest Territories becoming Operations Manager at Wolverine Air Ltd. in Fort Simpson. In 1993, he purchased the airline which was a bush plane business operating seven aircraft flying freight and passengers throughout Canada’s north. In 2010, Christopher sold it and moved back to Victoria and started the restoration process of his beloved Packard.

His quest for more of his grandfather’s legacy also extended to a search for the 26-foot yacht his grandfather had built at his shipyard in the 1920s. It was named Cynthia in honour of Christopher’s mother. The search ended on a farm in Duncan where the derelict and rotted boat was stored on land. It was too far gone for restoration but Christopher salvaged the hardware and the steering wheel on which her name was inlaid in bronze. Who knows what’s next, maybe there is a plane in the family story to be found?