Len Vale-Onslow.

Len the worlds oldest motorcyclist, rode down the Mall on his 100th birthday to be honoured by the Queen.
Len Vale Onslow, designed and built SOS. motorcycles at his factory at Hallow nr. Worcester, until 1931. In later times he designed and manufactured a conversion to increase cc. and power on 200cc villiers engines to 250cc.
Les Senter a local person remembers working for SOS motorcycles before the firm closed in 1931

Len on his handbuilt machine.

SOS. at The National Motorcycle Museum.

Tom Spring, champion of England.

I would support the nomination of “Tom Spring” my great great grandfather as a remarkable Herefordshire man but his correct name is Tom Winter. He had to fight under an alias as bare knuckle boxing was illegal. He won a series of gruelling fights and became Champion of England when he beat Langan in front of a crowd of 40,000 spectators on Pitchcroft.
He was a Fownhope Butcher and Publican and at some stage or other owned virtually every Herefordshire public house. The only one he could not purchase was the Green Dragon in Hereford so he used to go and stay there at weekends to meet his patrons and supporters. He eventually bought a hotel in London and is buried in Upper Norwood Cemetery. His Granddaughter, Minnie Burnett, married my Grandfather, Harry Harvey, who lived at the Commandary and was a Grocer in Sidbury.
Toms Grandfather clock, probably made in Herefordshire, still keeps perfect time. He was nicknamed “The Miller” as when he was going flat out he resembled a Windmill. Hence the Millstone Memorial on the Fownhope to Woolhope road on the site of his cottage. Max.

The Tom Spring Memorial mill stones on the Fownhope to Woolhope Road on the site of the cottage where he was born. Max

Commemorative jug Spring and Langan Championship.

The Southall Family.

The Southall company are captured in a light hearted moment off the Lyme Regis coast on a paddle steamer in 1910.

Fountain in Cripplegate Park, Worcester.

I would nominate a Worcester relative JOSEPH SOUTHALL who made a considerable contribution to Victorian life with his inventive genius as an Engineer. Managing Director of the family business Hardy and Padmore Ltd the Worcester Foundry in the Blockhouse, by the canal, which brought in the coal and iron and carried the heavy goods away, he patented, designed and produced a wide range of Engines using Oil, Gas and Hot Air which were shipped all over the world. Two of his hot air engines are displayed in the Kensington Science Museum. To work with his engines he invented a range of Rock and Stone crushing Machines coupled with Sand and Gravel washing equipment which was shipped to worldwide quarries. The Foundry also produced large Architectural Castings using Josephs ingenuity, Probably the largest is Foregate Street Railway Bridge which was cast for the Great Western Railway Company. Not only are the lovely lamps on Worcester Bridge locally made but also a considerable number of the Dolphin Lamps on the London Embankment which appear on the television daily. The fountain in Cripplegate Park and the Market Hall Clock were given by the family to the City.The London Strand is lit with Hardy and Padmore lamp standards and many cities used their products to hold the tram wires and lamps on their streets. The first Automatic Traffic Lights in the world operated at the top of Castle Street designed by Revo Electric of Smethwick and cast at the Foundry On the domestic scale Joseph employed a stonemason from the Cathedral to carve the patterns for some lovely cast iron doorstops. Many Victorian homes stopped their doors banging with Mr and Mrs Punch and Judy and the posh ones with the Duke of Wellington. These were cast by the foundrymen at the end of the shift to use up the last molten iron and were painted by their wives for pocket money. It has just been announced that the canal basin in Hereford is to be restored, the Iron Bollards in Canal Street were made at Hardy and Padmore during Josephs stewardship. Anyone restoring a canal working boat is delighted to find a Worcester “Guidwife” coal range to warm and cook with in the back cabin.These were used in barges, caravans, cottages and the larger versions in country homes.
Max Sinclair Lower Broadheath, Worcester.

The Commandery at Worcester 2004.

The Harvey Family 1916.

My Grandfather and his family lived at the Commandery throughout the First World War; he had a Sidbury Grocery and Corn Merchants.
The elderly lady on the left, my great gran, was the daughter of Tom Winter (alias Spring) who won the Championship of England Prize fight on Pitchcroft before a crowd of 40,000 spectators.
The young man seated centre with his little sister on his lap, was off to the trenches, and was killed in 1918 leading his men in an attack.
My Mother on right with parasol was sent to Cardiff to help organise war cargoes for France. Max Sinclair.