I first met Walter in 1951 when I joined the CTC and Walter was the Section Secretary.  Shortly afterwards, in March 1952, I received a copy of the famous directive on club cycling which is reproduced in the Autumn 2009 issue of ‘Northern Wheel’.

Walter was born in 1923 and finished his secondary education at Bury Technical College. Shortly after beginning his working life the Second World War broke out and Walter joined the Home Guard.  Soon afterwards he received his call-up papers and joined the Communication Branch of the Royal Navy. He saw service in a corvette on the Arctic convoys to Russia and afterwards enjoyed warmer weather in the Gulf of Aden.

On returning to civilian life he had several clerical jobs but his real aspiration was to own his own cycle shop.  This ambition was realised in 1952 when he opened his own shop on Moorgate in Bury.

Walter had been actively involved in the re-formation and running of Bury CTC after the War in July 1946 and he could now carry on his passion for cycling in his working life. In addition to going on CTC club runs Walter was a keen racing cyclist and was a member of the three local racing clubs. Having his own cycle shop seemed to give him greater inspiration for racing and his times in his 40’s and 50’s were often better than he had achieved in his 20’s.

One of the highlights of the cycling year in the 50’s and 60’s was a visit to Mrs.Metcalfe’s B&B in the Yorkshire Dales village of Askrigg.  After a wonderful day’s cycling Walter would take us in his van to the Saturday night young farmers dance in Hawes. In 1969 he flew to Barcelona with Jack Ellis and they then cycled back home, a distance of some 1200 miles.

Walter had joined the Rough Stuff Fellowship about the same time as myself and we had both enjoyed the cycling and social life of  the Lancashire group which was then based in Wigan. At the 1973 Easter Meet  at Middleton-in-Teesdale Walter introduced us to his fiancee, Norma.  Easter was early that year and the weather particularly cold but this did not prevent us from going over High Cup Nick. Our wheels were being continually jammed by frozen snow compacting against the mudguards and one member lost a shoe in Maize Beck but did not realize this until re-mounting his bike on the main road to Middleton.  Despite this introduction to cycling Norma was not put off and later in the same year she and Walter were married and I was their best man.

For the next 30 or so years she and Walter enjoyed cycling together with the CTC on club runs and annual Birthday rides and with the Rough Stuff Fellowship on their annual Easter Meets. They were also regular attenders at the Kirkpatrick Macmillan meets in Scotland. Norma also worked in the shop which had meantime moved twice and was now in The Rock. In 1988 they decided to retire and could therefore spend more of their time on the tandem.  They continued to enjoy their cycling until Walter’s ill-health curtailed their cycling activities.

As Jim Holden has said Walter’s death marked the end of an era for Bury CTC stretching back to 1946 from when Walter had been almost continuously on the Committee, Secretary, Treasurer - latterly President. He was a CTC life member.