The Vespaholics Vespa Club
Branch 210 of the Vespa Club of Britain
A brief history of the Vespa Club of Britain
The first Vespa was made by the Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy in 1946 and in 1949, Douglas, on their Stand, at the Motorcycle Show at Earls Court, London, displayed a number of the Piaggio imported models. In April 1951 we saw the first Douglas produced Vespa’s, rolling off the line from the Kingswood, Bristol plant.
It was in Italy that Mr Claude McCormack of Douglas saw his first Vespa, and with the foresight, intuition or sheer gambler’s luck that successful businessmen seem to have, knew that this scooter was the answer to his problem of providing future employment and production at the Douglas factory. So the agreements were drawn up, signed – and the Bristol factory was all set to produce Vespa’s under licence. Only it wasn’t quite as simple as that.... for over a year the Douglas people were busy making jigs, patterns, arranging accessories; all that before the operatives could even be trained.
Whilst on holiday in the south of France, Mr William Mitchel Bond – affectionately known to his friends as Bill, was so impressed with the numbers of a wonderful machine (the Vespa) being ridden by young and old alike, and displaying club sashes on their machines. So, in 1951 at the Motorcycle Show he came the proud owner of a Vespa. Having noted there were Vespa Clubs on the Continent, he wondered why there was nothing similar here. He wrote to Mr Claude McCormack the Managing Director of Douglas (Sales & Service) Ltd., the manufactures of the Vespa at Bristol, asking that question, and in turn was asked to form a club. Thus in May 1952, Branch No. 1 was formed and the Vespa Club of Great Britain was born (Great was later dropped from the title). Shortly, other branches were formed, Birmingham (No. 2 Branch), South London (No. 3), and three other Branches were formed to join Bill Bonds, North West London Vespa Club and so the Vespa Club of Britain grew under the Douglas Publicity Agents, Mash & Associates. It was in 1952 that Mr Bond retired from his job as a railway Permanent Way Maintenance Assistant to the Chief Engineer of London Midland Region Railways looking forward to a peaceful existence, this was not to be.
In 1954 the agency ceased to run the V.C.B. and the activities of the Vespa Club necessitated the opening of a special office. Mr McCormack (then President) invited Bill Bond to undertake the post of Secretary-General, a post he accepted in January 1955 and after a few months of conducting these activities from his home in Watford, the Douglas Company acquired offices in New Bond Street, London, and it was here that Bill operated with a small staff from June 1955 to 1957, then the Club moved to new offices in Finchley Road, London which was part of the London depot of the Douglas Company.
The launch of the recruiting competition in 1955 was a resounding success with West Middlesex Vespa Club recruiting 122 members and the two equal runners-up were Ulster Vespa Club and Thames Valley Vespa Club each of which recruited 95 new members.
The first Vespa Club of Britain Annual General Meeting was held on April 21st. 1956 at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. The President, Mr Claude McCormack, took the chair and opened the proceedings by reviewing the progress made by the Club since its inception in May 1952. At that time there was one branch of the Club in N.W. London; today there are 63 (21/04/1956) with a membership of over 3,000. Referring to himself and the Vice-President (Mr C. C. Vinson), Mr McCormack said, “We have perhaps made mistakes, but one mistake we have not made is in putting ourselves in the hands of Mr Bond who is serving us extremely well.”
This was also the year that Eurovespa was held in Munchen, Deutschland were we had twenty four members representing the V.C.B., our full allocation, although we had seventy two members that applied to go.
Membership continued to increase through 1956 and had risen to around 4,500 members and 100 branches by the middle of 1957 by which time Mr Bond had established a Secretariat in Finchley Road, London, with a Secretary, Mrs Doreen Behan, a Book keeper, Mrs Janet Jones, an Assistant General Secretary, Miss Margaret Farquhar and himself as General Secretary. Mr Claude McCormack (Managing Director of Douglas (Kingswood) Ltd.) was President.
1960 there was keen competition for the title of VCB Champion Vespa Rider, competitors had to compete in five qualify national Vespa rallies to take part in the championship for the first prize of a Vespa GS. which was donated by Firth Cleveland Tools Limited, makers of Surform range of tools? Membership had reached 6,000 and we had 160 branches.
By this time there were great Annual Eurovespa Rallies, there was an Annual European Regularity Championship (Britain was host for the 1960 event in Cheltenham). V.C.B. organised an Annual Super National Rally, Regions or Clubs organised their own National Rallies, the Isle of Man Scooter Week brought glory to some members and brought the two main rivals together in competition…namely Vespa and Lambretta.
In 1961, Mr Bond became President, Mr Claude McCormack became Patron, and Mr Gerald Newton was General Secretary, while Margaret Farquhar was still trying to form more Branches. Towards the end of 1961, economies had to be made, the Vespa Depot closed down, and the V.C.B. Secretariat, being housed in the same building was transferred to the Douglas Works at Bristol. Bill Bond remained President, Gerald Newton joined a religious order, and Margaret Farquhar had to retire because of ill health. Mr David Pullom became General Secretary. Membership at the time of the AGM in October 1962 stood at 3,600 which is about the same as it stands at the beginning of February 2018.
There was the very first London to Brighton Veteran Run in 1964 which had 37 machines entered, all over ten years old and this led to the formation of the Veteran Vespa Club in October of that year and is our longest continues running club. Also in 1964 was the Woburn Abby National Rally. V.C.B continued to bask in some glory for a few more years. Mr Eric Brockway became President in 1964, and in 1965 Mr David Pullom resigned, Mr Ian Kirkpatrick became General Secretary. That same year, Douglas (Kingwood) Ltd. decided to import Vespa’s from Italy rather than manufacture them at Bristol and the National Rally was held at Woburn Abbey.
In 1966, Mr Bill Bond sadly passed away, the V.C.B. fought on against dearer Vespa’s and insurance, cheaper cars, and membership numbers began to fall. In March under the heading ‘More Members mean a Better Club’ The 1966 recruiting campaign started on 1st March through to 22nd August with a cash prizes to the clubs which enrol the most new members. In 1968 Mr Brockway became President and Mr Charles Caswell became Vice President.
In 1970 Vespa Club of Britain had to become self-supporting, thus the Secretariat could no longer remain at Bristol, Ian Kirkpatrick was no longer General Secretary and had moved on, Charles Caswell then took on this mammoth task, running the Club from his home with the help of his wife Ellen. The Championship was sponsored by Philips Electrical and the Club continuing to organise Rallies and events for the members but over the next ten years member numbers fell and by the 1979 AGM we had just 520 members.
The Silver Jubilee of the V.C.B. in 1977, was celebrated with an International Rally at Havering in Essex, and in 1978 the major rally was at Newcastle upon Tyne, over the Spring Bank holiday, when once again members of the Club from all over the country, met to further the interests of owners and drivers of Vespa Scooters.
A revival with the eighties, membership started to improve with more sporting event appearing in the V.C.B. Championship which was sponsored by Midland Scooters then later by Scooter and Scooterist and also Malossi (UK). Direct members started to outnumber the branch members and in 1981 membership had gone up to 997 the membership then fluctuated, between 997 and 556. Branches also fluctuated between 21 and 41 split over five regions, yet in 1988 we had 41 Branches and 678 members.
A few changes for 1984 at the A.G.M, the club introduced the set-up of a Membership Secretary to ease the work load of the General Secretary. The Club held its own by continuing to organise rallies and events for the V.C.B. Championship and our members continued to go to the Eurovespa events.
For the 1986 Vespa Club of Britain Championship the 1st prize in the clubman’s section was a new Vespa. London Region by this time was also running its own championship with a full calendar of events.
At the 1989 Eurovespa in Kaiserslautern, Germany we had 50 places allocated to V.C.B. and we had two teams of three riders representing us in the European Championships (Gymkhana and Sporting Trial).
The nineties and the membership was about to start a downward trend. In 1991 Mr Clive Mills was elected General Secretary, 1994 was marred by the loss of our President, Mr Eric Brockway. In 1995, Mr Charles Caswell became President, Margaret Farquhar and Mr Leslie Smith where elected Vice Presidents and Mr Barry Baker became General Secretary.
The one consistent event throughout these years was the Annual General Meeting followed by a Presentation Dinner/Disco which had been held in Royal Leamington Spa since 1957.
We celebrated 50 years of Vespa with a big rally at Billing Aquadrome, Northampton.
In 1997 Mr Robin Quartermain took over the job of General Secretary until October 1998. Mr David Best who officially started as general Secretary on 7th February 1999, was acting from October 1998 went on to be the third longest serving General Secretary.
Hamburg was the venue of the 2000 Eurovespa and European Gymkhana and Sporting Trial Championships. We had two teams of three riders representing the V.C.B. in the Gymkhana Championship riding in the yellow boiler suites used in the sixties; this is the last time we were represented in this event. The summer of 2001 saw Mr Charles Caswell elevated to Honorary Life President and Mr Leslie Smith to President.
In June 2002 we had a new Branch start up, The Vespa Touring Club which was to help stabilise the club, it was there simply to promote and encourage anyone interested in attending European events especially Eurovespa. At the time several clubs did go to events abroad regularly but the Touring Club would bring together members from all parts of the country as was seen at the last Eurovespa event to be held in Turin. This could have been the start of our recovery.
In July to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Vespa Club of Britain an International Rally was held in what must have been the hottest weekend of the year at Paddock Wood, near Maidstone, Kent. Christa Solbach from F.I.V. was present, as was Mr Robin Davy from Munich with Marie, Mr Rolf Fauerbach Vespa Club of Germany, Mr Anton Somers from Vespa Club Netherlands and the President of Vespa Club Algeria, Hamood and many more. A most enjoyable full weekend of events including a ride to Brighton.
Our membership had hit an all-time low in 2004 with only 213 full members, over the next few years thanks to the loyal V.C.B. members at the time and the seven existing branches, All or Nothing S.C., Essex Vespa Club, Farnborough Vespa Club, Nottingham Vespa Club, Piaggio S.C., Vespa Touring Club and the Veteran Vespa Club, we headed towards our biggest recovery.
Member’s free rally at Billing Aquadrome, Northampton in September 2005 had 100 members take part if a full weekend of events. On the Sunday Mr Leslie Smith resigned as President then just four weeks later at the AGM on 15/10/2005 also at Billing Mr David Smith (Vespa Club of Britain Ltd.) was to take the chair but not all were in favour and the rules quoted, Mr Smith left the meeting and Mr Tony Thorpe took the chair, another shock was Mr D Best, (General Secretary) did not get re-elected. Mr David Burley was our tenth General Secretary and took over the job in December 2005 and was followed in December 2006 by Mr Mark Freer who continued through to end of November 2009.
In June 2006, 74 members of the club attended the last Eurovespa Rally which was held in Turin, Italy. Our membership had increased to 364 full members so to get 20% of our membership to Turin was a very good turnout. This was followed in 2007 by the first Vespa World Days event which was held in the principality of San Marino under the guidance of the Vespa World Club. The vacant position of President was taken up by Mr David Burley at the beginning of 2007 to give a young face to the club and in October 2007 Mr Alan Stevens was elected as Vice-President and a five year plan put in place.
In May 2008 at the presidents meeting in Sicily it was agreed that 2012 World Days would be in the United Kingdom, that co-insides with the 60th Anniversary of the club. (1952-2012)
Membership still on the way up, now at 773 (13/02/2008). The next few years we had to be seen at events to help grow our membership so all the committee attended many events and we tried to show the club in a more modern way. A website was set up in 2009 to inform all the Vespa club members’ details of the event. Our membership is still on the way up, now at 906 (13/02/2009). June 2009 we had a good turnout for V.W.D in Zell-am-See, Austria, a great venue at the side of the lake and the view on the Grossglockner high Alpine road, a 30 mile pass that snakes its way up to the main sightseeing area was out of this world. The events at home continued to be entertaining. Elected in October 2009 Patrice Baxter becomes our twelfth General Secretary.
We had many fund raising events in the lead up to 2012 VWD and at the 2010 AGM it was agreed that the committee would continue on block until the first AGM after VWD 2012 which was March 2013. Our fundraising events included two trips to the Piaggio museum and factory which was well supported and raised £1,000 and we had donations from a number of members as well as competitions and raffles.
We hosted the 2012 Vespa World Days at the O2 Complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in south east London. We had everything in place at London Fields, Hackney but were told a month before a councillor had put in an objection which was upheld and we could no longer have the venue. There was a good turn-out at the O2, almost 2000 for the gala meal and over 3,000 Vespa’s but to arrange everything in a month created many problems.
The one thing our Life President really wanted was a Eurovespa / World Days in the UK; sadly he was in hospital during the event and died shortly after.
Our Members rally to celebrate our 60th anniversary was held at the Bubble Car Museum near Boston, Lincolnshire in the August of 2012.
As planned it was all change for the committee at the 2013 AGM. The membership continues to increase at a steady rate and is up to 1369. Mr Robin Quartermain takes on the mantle of President with his vast knowledge of the Vespa Club having served in many posts. Mr Denz Redmond became Vice- President for the year and a small team, including Vespaholics founder Daron Humphreys who joined the committee in August 2013 as Vespa News Editor worked hard to maintain the progress, more events, club stock and more publicity, it would take just a year for the new committee to settle in.
November 2014 and the regions where re-introduced and with membership up to 1940 there was a lot more events all over the country, still good attendances at Vespa World Days and other events abroad.
Mr Duncan Patey was elected Vice-President in January 2015 for the year and Mr Mark Freer was back to cover the General Secretaries roll till the September when Mr Nigel Ewart-Jones took over the roll. Also in the September Vespaholics member Rosemarie Humphreys took over the ever growing and busy job of Membership Secretary. The club had 110 members attend Vespa World Days 2015 in Croatia and our President did a presentation at the presidents meeting for Vespa World Days 2020 which was later brought forward to 2018. Duncan Patey set up the Riders Regional Competition which has proved to be a huge success. Membership was still going from strength to strength.
At the 2016 AGM it was reported the membership was 2833 and there had been a big increase in turnover of 89% on the previous year. Vespa World Days in St. Tropez was attended by 200 members. Vespa News reaches new heights and all the committee had been working hard. More and more events in each region and Mr Robin Quartermain had been out to Belfast to meet with the President of the Vespa World Club. With more branches, more events leads to more members.
At the 2017 AGM we had 3034 members and at the Celle Vespa World Days we had just under 400 members attend, the largest number we have ever had. Sadly Mr Robin Quartermain stood down in June 2018.