They do it for me

Heroes and Role Models.



In an idle few moments recently I began wondering just who my  heroes and role models might be.  Almost certainly they will not concur with those of you the reader but I hope that this Blogroll may inspire some to consider those who have influenced their lives.




Isambard Kingdom Brunel  1806-1859

Brunel is arguably one of the greatest mechanical and civil engineers that the world has ever known driven by a belief that nothing was impossible.  The Great Western Railway was a singular step forward in transport,  he not only created the actual railway system itself, including the Box Tunnel which was a major engineering success, but designed the necessary  locomotives and rolling stock as well being the architect for stations and other infrastructure.

The SS Great Britain was the first iron steamship of its kind designed for trans-Atlantic crossings and is now preserved in Bristol Docks. Brunel built several other large iron ships including the Great Eastern whaich was used laid the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable.

He was also a bridge builder, the Royal Albert railway bridge over the River Tamar linking Devon to
Cornwall which is still in use today. It was thought that a bridge with very long, flat arches was an engineering impossibility due to a perceived inherent lack of strength. The doubters were  proved wrong after the  completion of such a structure at Maidenhead over the River Thames, this still carries the main line from Paddingto to Wales and the West Country.

The Thames Tunnel was built at Rotherhithe under the River Thames using an innovative tunneling shield technique for horse carriage and pedestrian traffic, at 393m in length it was the first of its kind in the world.  It is still in use today as part of the London Underground network.

Brunel is a hero to me because of his vision for the future, his engineering genius as well as his his determination and indomitable spirit.  Much of his work can still be seen in regular use today havibg stood the test of time and hopefully will be there for many years to come.


Keir Hardie MP  1856-1915

Keir Hardie was the son of a shipyard carpenter and a domestic servant living in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.  He had his first job at the age of seven as a message boy for the Anchor  Line Steamship Company at a wage of 4s.0d per week to boost the family income. resultantly he was unable to continue formal education but was taught by his parents.  His employment when a teenager was working in shipyards.  Following a six month shipyard lockout of unionised members he began working in a coal mine attending night school after ten hour shifts at the mine.

During this time Hardie became an enthusiastic member of the United Reformed and joined a Temperance Union.  He began preaching to crowds in open spaces developing his public speaking skills.  Mine owners blacklisted him because of beliefs and activities seeing him as an agitator.
In 1879 Hardie was appointed as a Miners Agent beginning a new career as a trade union organiser from which the Ayrshire Miners Union was formed.

During this period he supported the Liberal Party but became disillusioned because of their contempt for working people so in 1886 he unsuccessfully stood as an Independent Labour candidate. Shortly afterwards he became the Secretary of the newly formed Scottish National Party.  In 1892 he was
elected as MP for West Ham South advocating a graduated income tax, free schooling, pensions, the abolition of the House of Lords and women's right to vote.  The followng year he and others formed the Independent Labour Party, in 1906 the name Labour Party was adopted of which he became leader..

Hardie was a life long pacifist and supported conscientious objectors for which he was widely derided at the outbreak of the Great War. He died in 1915.

Hardie is a role model to me because he proved that by determination and application a man of poor humble beginnings is able to achieve great things whilst improving the lot of very ordinary people.  A truly great man who was always true to his principles which should be an example for many.



Dorothy Florence Bird  1919-1952

Dorothy (née Webb) was born in Streatham, South London in 1919. She grew up in Edmonton next to where Arthur Bird lived and they became childhood sweethearts eventually marrying in 1940. Eearly 1944 Dorothy went to Hitchin Hospital to give birth as London was dangerous due to bombing raids.  WIthin a year or so she was diagnosed with tuberculosis which at that time was invariably fatal.  Despite this terrible news she decided to combat the disease in the only way that she knew by fighting it with every fibre of her being.

Unhappily four years later she became bedridden because of the debilitating nature of the illness, after numerous operations including the loss of one lung she eventually succumbed in 1952 leaving her husband Arthur and myself as her survivors.

Mother to me was a heroine because of the determined way in which she chose to fight her illness, never giving up hope that she might defeat it. She was such a strong willed lady never giving in, a salutary lesson to me.


Ronald Fittall, Trade Unionist  1932-2006

I first met Ron when I became a London Transport bus driver at Enfield garage in early 1969.  On my first day he was one of the first to introduce to himself to me as the chairman of the garage branch of the Transport and General Workers Union.  Over a number of years we became close friends despite
my gaining rapid promotion whilst Ron eventually became a full time union official responsible for London busmen.

Needlesss to say Ron was a tierless representative and voice for his members, at all times his desire and efforts to improve pay and working conditions was paramount achieving much for his members.

Ron was a role model to me because of his tireless devotion to a cause, devoting many hours of his own time to the cause in which he firmy believed.


Fritz Scheidegger, Sidecar racer  1937-1967

Fritz was a German speaking Swiss who became interested in motorcycles at a fairly early age, this interest became a life long passion as he was fortunate enough to become a professional sidecar driver. 

My interest in sidecar racing began in 1956, Fritz soon coming to my
notice as an outstanding driver winning races against some of the best in the world.  He was not only a talented driver but also quite an innovative engineer in sidecar design along with his great friend Rudi Kurth. 

As a driver he was very fast, along  with speed there was a certain smoothness of movement and control.  He achieved the pinnacle of his career becoming World Champion in 1966 with passenger John Robinson, probably the ultimate sidecar passenger.

Sadly Fritz died as a result of an accident at Mallory Park in 1967.

 He was a role model for me in the  world of sidecar racing and throughout my own racing career. I always tried to model myself upon him purely because he was the best.

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Present Day Heroes

Dennis Skinner MP  1932 -

Upon leaving school he began work in the local coal mines for more than twenty years becoming a leader in the National Union of Mineworkers.  Latterly a member of Derbyshire County Council he was elected Labour member for Bolsover Derbyshire in 1970, a seat which he has held continuously since then.


Coming from a working class family in his political career she trongly supported many social aspects of legislation with his concern for ordinary people. In 2003 he was one of a large number of MPs who voted against war with Iraq.

Despite being an MP for may years he has never missed a single sitting in the Commons and refuses to be appointed to any committees as such would compromise his ideals.  He has never been a member of an All-Party Parliamentary Group; does not eat alongside parliamentary colleagues in the Commons dining room; does not take trips or holidays paid for by others; never drinks in the Commons Bar; and stays in the House of Commons during the Queen's Speech at the State
Opening of Parliament, as he advocates outright abolition of the House of Lords.

Dennis Skinner is a man of very strong principles and beliefs which has often brought him into conflict with part managers as well as being suspended from the House on several occasions for breaches of protocol.  It has been said that he  is a man who ploughs his own furrow rather than meekly fall in with the masses around him.

He is a role model for me because of his unwaveringly principled stance as well as an unshakable and indefatigable belief in his ideals to improve the lives of ordinaty people.


Graham English 1974 -

Graham is a person that I have known for many years, even as a lad he invariably showed a very individual streak of determination with fascination for all things mechanical.  One of his early mechanical creations which was his ingenuity in constructing s a radio controlled motorcycle crash helmet which careered around his home.  By the age of fourteen or so he was was building racing sidecar engines for drivers, some of whom were extremely competitive and successful.

His father, Ray, was a sidecar racer, thus having grown up with racing it was inevitable that he too would take up racing.  His first race was in 1997, he was determined to obtain his national racing licence which he did in that year, no mean feat.  Following his interets he developed into an accompplshed, skilful engineer, always eager to learn and devise new ideas latterly forming his own engineering company.

For a number of seasons Graham successfully raced on many of the British circuits against some of the best riders in the country before espousing racing on ordinary roads in  Ireland, an ambition achieved by doggedness and sheer grit  culminating in competing in the Isle of MMan TT.  Unhappily he had suffered a serious accident there in 2015 which initially caused great concern for his future.

There followed many months in hospital, staging a remarkably  quick recovery because of his desire to recover fully as soon as possible and that need to race once more.  Happily today he is more or less fully fit again and planning a return to the roads in 2016.

Graham is one of my role models because he is determined to achieve his goals no matter what and his constant drive for success.