Charles Palmer, who founded a car restoration in business in Alyth that developed a worldwide reputation for excellence, has died aged 84.
He began restoration as a hobby but went into business after taking early retirement from his job as a technical teacher at Alyth High School.
Classic Restorations Scotland gained a reputation for quality work and customers from all corners of the earth, from New Zealand to Argentina, the USA and the Caribbean, began to send their prized vehicles to Alyth to be reborn.
Charles had been working in the business seven days a week until going into care around a year ago.
Graeme Johnstone, who now runs the business, says it is a measure of the reputation for excellence that Charles built that the firm now has a global profile.
Charles Bruce Stewart Palmer was born in Alyth where his family ran a brush-making business but also had strong connections to motor transport.
His grandfather had run a livery business in Tunbridge Wells, which hired out horse-drawn coaches; his father was an enthusiastic motorist, one uncle drove petrol tankers and another drove London buses during The Blitz.
As a young boy during the war, Charles would accompany his father to the garage where the family Citroen was laid up, to help polish and maintain it.
Many other marques, including Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Daimler, Morris and Austin were laid up in the same garage and soon Charles developed a love of cars and their individual characteristics.
Apprenticeship
After his education at Dundee High School, he secured an apprenticeship as a motor engineer with James Fearn in Kirriemuir.
It was varied training, working on cars, buses, lorries and learning electronics, panel-beating and spray painting.
In 1960, at the age of 21, Charles moved to work in Dundee. His engineering skills were invaluable and a main dealership offered him increased wages to strip and rebuild engines, gearboxes and mechanical components.
National service then intervened, and at 21 years of age he opted to do three years in the RAF training as an aircraft wireless mechanic based first at Kinloss and then in Singapore.
On his return to civilian life he joined the family business for a spell before returning to the motor trade.
Career in education
Charles then decided to change career and trained as a technical education teacher and worked at Alyth High School for 24 years, many as head of department.
In his free time he restored several Jaguars and then took on the huge challenge of a Bentley Mark VI which he said should have been put out its misery. He succeeded and the car remained part of his collection.
His restoration work impressed some of the old jute families in the area who approached Charles to work on their vehicles.
He acquired premises in Alyth, grew the business to employ six people, some of them former pupils who served their time with Classic Restorations.
In 1992 when Alyth High School closed, Charles took early retirement to concentrate on the business.
Within five years, Classic Restorations Scotland had become a limited company operating from an old jute mill and had begun offering mechanics, body fabrication, painting and interior trimming under one roof.
The firm’s reputation quickly spread and Charles built a huge customer base in Scotland, across the UK and around the world.
He was also a regular exhibitor at major events such as the Classic Car Show in Birmingham, the Goodwood Revival and the Glamis Extravaganza.
Charles and his late wife Carol had two children, Fiona and Robin.
He later married Victoria who also predeceased him.
For the last year he had been living at Beech Manor Nursing Home in Blairgowrie.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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