DOROTHY GREENWOOD

Regular contributor, Dorothy Greenwood sends more reminiscences from her Isle of Man home…….

Pre-war, several riders from Australia and New Zealand had competed in the Isle of Man TT; after the hostilities, antipodeans were seen in force on the Mountain Course. One of the first competitors to arrive on the Island for the 1948 event was Australian, Eric McPherson. Eric had been nominated by the ACCA for the TT, but unfortunately he came off his machine at Governors Bridge on the first morning practice, injured his pelvis, spent a few days in Nobles Hospital and was unable to race. Nursing his injured pride, he stayed for the rest of the TT with people I knew well near Hillberry Corner.
Nothing daunted, he was back the next year, accompanied by his wife, Ruby, and racing colleagues, George Morrison and Harry Hinton. Both McPherson and Hinton were ACCA nominated.

An early arrival gave them time to familiarise themselves with the TT Course, which paid off as Eric finished 11th in the Junior and 14th in the Senior on his AJS. George Morrison was 27th in the Junior and 31st in the larger capacity race, not a bad for a first time privateer. Harry Hinton, an experienced rider, with only one eye made an even bigger impact with creditable 15th and 9th places in the Junior and Senior respectively.
All three returned the following year, with McPherson again 14th in the Senior on his AJS [he’d retired in the 350cc Race]; Morrison finished as one of the tail-enders in the Junior due to mechanical problems, but was delighted with his 11th place in the Senior. Harry Hinton rode consistently well to come home 10th in both his races.

In 1951, Harry Hinton was the only one of the “musketeers” to compete, crashing out, however, at Laurel Bank in the Junior whilst lying second to Geoff Duke. In later years, his sons, Eric and Harry Jnr. both raced on the Island, the Castrol R obviously running in the blood. Meanwhile, Eric McPherson, aged 40, had decided to retire after breaking his wrist during an Easter meeting back at home.

Syd Jenson was the first of the post-war Kiwis to arrive for the TT, doing so in 1949; his 12th place in the Junior and 5th in the Senior, earning him the Visitor’s Cup. In 1950 he returned with John Dale and Jim Swarbrick, the team winning the New Zealand ACU Award.

Rod Coleman first rode in the TT in 1951. I met him on numerous occasions; he returned several times, riding for the AJS works team. In ’51 he achieved 3rd in the Junior and 4th in the Senior. In 1954 he won the Junior on his AJS, becoming the first New Zealander to win a TT, and, along with LT Simpson and Peter Murphy, received the NZ ACU Club Team Award.
Many fellow antipodeans followed during the 1950s, some I remember well and others vaguely. From Australia, Jack Ahern, Laurie Boulter, Bob Brown, Keith Bryen, Keith Campbell, Ken Kavanagh, Tony McAlpine, Tom Phillis, Maurice Quincey, Ernie Ring and Geoff Walker. From New Zealand, George Begg, Bill Collett, Fred Cook, John Hempleman, Maurice Low, Ken Mudford, Peter Murphy and Len Perry.

Since then, countless others have followed as travel is so much easier as nowadays people fly across the world, backwards and forwards all the time – they don’t have to make the thirteen thousand mile journey by boat.

Before TT ’53 I met Geoff Walker from Tasmania, getting to know him very well. Geoff, a surveyor, living in Launceston was a popular and enthusiastic rider, being the first Tasmanian to take part in the TT. He retired in the Junior on his AJS, but sadly lost his life after a crash at Kerrowmoar on the fourth lap of the Senior. The previous day, Geoff had phoned home to Tasmania to make arrangements to buy a new Norton on which he intended racing the rest of the season in Europe. However, grief had been waiting in the wings, so to speak; all opportunities lost, things left unaccomplished. Geoff Walker’s photograph was brought personally to me from Tasmania by his nephew, who visited the Isle of Man in October 2004.

Geoff, who was staying at Mount Rule, is buried at Braddan Cemetery; in the grave opposite him is Aussie, Laurie Boulter, who died tragically the following year.
Laurie Boulter had finished 11th in the ’53 Senior and had returned in ’54 along with Maurice Quincey and Jack Ahern to officially represent Australia. Before official practice started, Laurie had been killed on his bike after running into a reversing car near Handley’s Corner. He was staying at Rose Villa on Douglas promenade, sharing a room with Gordon Laing form Australia, who came to the IoM in ’53 for the MGP, returning the following year for the TT, when he finished 6th in the Senior. Gordon was a likeable and talented rider; he was selected to ride for the Norton team in the Belgian GP, where he sadly crashed on the second lap of the 350cc event, dying from his injuries. Ernie Ring from Australia, remembered for his daredevil cornering at Hillberry, unfortunately came to grief at the Belgian GP the previous year.

Most of the overseas TT riders stayed at Rose Villa, a large boarding house on Queens Promenade in Douglas where Gladys and Roy Gilbert made them very welcome, providing “home from home” facilities. Rose Villa was demolished a few years back, now being part of Century Court Apartments. The house next door, Erin Brae, is still there, alongside the Queens Hotel, unofficial Manx headquarters of Jimmy Simpson and friends!
The group photograph taken in 1955 outside Rose Villa is of Australian and New Zealand TT riders. Australian Bob Brown [right front], Bill Collett, New Zealand [centre front] and Maurie Low, also New Zealand [back left] were the only three I knew. Bob Brown is holding his Senior replica for 16th place – a much higher finish than in the Junior that year. In later years he had many fine results, becoming somewhat of an expert at finishing 3rd – in both the Junior and Senior of 1957 and in the Senior the following two years. He did, however, secure a second position in the ’59 F1 500cc Race behind Bob McIntyre; sadly, our Australian friend was killed whilst practising for the German GP of 1960.

Maurie Low retired in both races in 1955; Bill Collett, however, received the Overseas Newcomers Trophy with 14th in the Senior on an AJS and 23rd riding a Matchless in the larger capacity event.
When I met Bill and Maurie, it was a case of fitting faces to personalities as I’d heard so much about them and other Kiwi riders. For several years, I had exchanged some interesting letters with a pen friend in New Zealand; we were both fascinated in the TT, in particular its personalities.

My pen friend, who lived in Te Puke on the Bay of Plenty, North Island, and his two friends were great motorcycle enthusiasts – his friends had been brought up on tales of the Isle of Man and the TT as their father had emigrated from the Island and bought a farm there. Having been shown and no doubt entertained by my letters, we subsequently found out that his friends’ father had known my Dad’s family before emigrating, and had relatives living at Rhencullen, Kirk Michael – it’s a small world!
Another Kiwi, George Begg, I remember more for his fairytale snowy December wedding on the Island, than for his racing abilities. He married a local girl, Freda Kennish at Ballaugh Church.

I first met Australian, Keith Campbell in 1952 at the Manx Grand Prix. A most pleasant personality, he was 2nd in the ’57 Junior aboard a Guzzi and 5th in the Senior. It was an eventful year for him as he married Geraldine Reid, sister-in-law of Geoff Duke and became 350cc World Champion. The following year he was 7th in the Junior on a Norton, but retired in the Senior. Sadly, in July 1958, Keith crashed at a bend racing at Toulouse in France aboard his Senior Norton, receiving fatal injuries.

I recall the late, great Tom Phillis first competing in the IoM in 1958; he later joined Honda, became 125cc World Champion, but his racing career was tragically cut short when he was killed at Laurel Bank during the 1962 Junior Race.

In June 1977 Ruby and Eric McPherson returned again for the TT, some 27 years after their previous trip, spending time revisiting old friends, haunts and memories. The red brick cottage where Eric stayed in 1948 and again with Ruby the following two years, had been sold in the mid-fifties. This was because the elderly widowed father of three, who owned the house, and his younger daughter in her twenties had emigrated to Australia. The air must have suited the father as he took on a new lease of life, remarried and had another family – the daughter still lives in Sydney. The cottage now belongs to the owner of the nearby camping site.

The ‘50s was a special time for me, leaving behind some magical memories, and some sad ones, too.

Dorothy Greenwood