Chairman’s Report Summer 2025
Dear Members
I just can’t believe how quickly the year is flying by – between work, home life, Jury Service (more on that later!) and the rallies, I honestly don’t know where the time is going. They always said that as you get older, time seems to slip away faster. Turns out they were right! So, I figured it was high time to get another newsletter out.
Certainly the most important event of the year was the arrival of another grandchild. On the 25th of March, little Josie made her debut into the world. She’s an absolute cutie (yes, Granddads are allowed to be biased!).
Another unforgettable moment for me was on the 19th of April when David Ralph invited me to join him on the first run of the year in his 1904
Wolseley. I met up with David and he gave me a tour of his impressive collection, which included a 1914 Singer, a 1933 Austin 12 saloon and an Austin 10 drop head coupe.
Next up, we got to the Wolseley, pushed it out into the sunshine and spent some time admiring her, chatting about all the little details. A passing mother and her young daughter (around 5 years old) stopped to take a look. Without skipping a beat, David asked if the little girl wanted to sit in the car. She was thrilled, honking the horn while her mom snapped pictures. It was such a nice moment to share with a child from a generation that wouldn’t usually get this close to such a beautiful vehicle.
It was time to get dressed up, of course, had to dig out the hat with the floppy ears and the gloves! David fired up the Wolseley after making sure everything like the oilers on the dash were in good shape. They work similarly to the ones on our engines.
We set off and David had warned me beforehand about the open-top car and the lack of seatbelts. Some people might find that a little unnerving, but I was totally at ease and enjoying every second of it. We drove for about seven miles, as David knows all the back roads in the area, and then we stopped at a great spot for coffee and cake. While we were sitting in the garden, a father and son who were in the motor trade came over and took a keen interest in everything David was sharing.
After a good chat about the Wolseley’s history (David has traced it back to its original owners, the Chubb family), we finished our coffee and cake and drove the seven miles back, reaching the heady speed of 27 mph! It was such a wonderful experience and I can’t thank David enough for sharing it with me.