It is with deep regret that I have to announce that Paul passed away at home last week. we send our deepest sympathies to Paul's two brothers at this very sad time. Many of you will know that Paul was the Editor of the Rarebit magazine for many years and also set up the clubs first website.
To this end, this Forum was still being administered by Paul.
A sad day all round
Brian Gent
Chairman
Paul Clark
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Re: Paul Clark
I first met Paul back in the early 80’s when he was living near Isleworth. I was Secretary of the GOC and ran social meets of the Surrey/London group at my local pub in East Sheen, which Paul attended from time to time before the family moved out to Chalfont-St- Giles. He immediately struck me as a really positive can-do guy. He rarely complained about the impact on his life of the workplace accident that happened in his 20’s that left him paralysed from the waist down. He explained how he had spent months in hospital, followed by a long period of recuperative treatment. He had a steely determination citing the famous words of Nikki Lauda he said, “S..t happens but you pick yourself up and get on with life...” Literally in Paul’s case.
Anyway, I persuaded him to join the Committee (for which he may or may not have thanked me) and we got to know each other quite well over the years. He eventually took on editorship of Rarebit as well as becoming the Mark 3 expert, contributing loads of technical advice and insights. Not least amongst his achievements, aside from doing all his own maintenance on his Mark 3, was converting it to hand controls. Paul tried to avoid using a wheelchair as much as possible and moved around with amazing agility on crutches, as ably demonstrated at many a Wiscombe hillclimb gathering.
As a result he developed considerable upper body strength. He came to my aid once when I had removed the gearbox and overdrive from my Mark 3 for some work but I was really struggling to get the gearbox back on the output shaft, so I rang him asking if he had any bright ideas and without hesitation he said he would nip over and give me a hand. He was like that, always willing to help. With me under the car in my small garage, Paul was giving advice on what to try but to no effect. Eventually he said stop faffing around Nick, or words to that effect, and got under the car himself, no mean feat as it was supported on chassis and axle stands with not a great deal of space underneath. I had been supporting the gearbox on a trolley jack but once he was positioned he took the whole weight of it through his arms, gave it a few vigorous shakes (and the car as well) and bingo it slipped on to the shaft! Needless to say after an hour or so of failed attempts myself, I was mightily grateful but as Paul said quoting Aesop “No small act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted”. He was full of surprises like that.
I’m glad to say I was able to repay the favour a few years later in the early 1990’s coming back from Wiscombe on a busy Sunday evening. The weekend was always quite a social event and a few of us, I recall, were staying in holiday chalets near Wiscombe so I decided to take the family and trailer the Gilbern behind the company car, a Rover 820. On the return journey somewhere around Andover, I spotted Paul’s ever faithful Mark 3 WXM, pulled over at the side of the A303. The hand control servo had packed up. So I unloaded my car off the trailer and managed to winch his car on instead, which was a tad exciting on a narrow lay-by in heavy traffic. Paul joined me and the kids in the Rover back to our house in Twickenham, with my wife following in the Gilbern. Kids being kids, there were endless questions about how he came to be injured which he responded to with great patience. But we did manage to get Paul and car safely home to Chalfont St Giles after a brief food stop at home. But I did have to explain to our car fleet manager why the clutch on the Rover was shot at only 8,000 miles.
Paul was a great guy, enthusiastic and endowed with a dry sense of humour. He was invariably positive and rarely complained, barring the odd expletive but in later years his injuries did start to take their toll on his health. He contributed an enormous amount to the GOC over many years and he will be greatly missed.
Nick Vandervell
Anyway, I persuaded him to join the Committee (for which he may or may not have thanked me) and we got to know each other quite well over the years. He eventually took on editorship of Rarebit as well as becoming the Mark 3 expert, contributing loads of technical advice and insights. Not least amongst his achievements, aside from doing all his own maintenance on his Mark 3, was converting it to hand controls. Paul tried to avoid using a wheelchair as much as possible and moved around with amazing agility on crutches, as ably demonstrated at many a Wiscombe hillclimb gathering.
As a result he developed considerable upper body strength. He came to my aid once when I had removed the gearbox and overdrive from my Mark 3 for some work but I was really struggling to get the gearbox back on the output shaft, so I rang him asking if he had any bright ideas and without hesitation he said he would nip over and give me a hand. He was like that, always willing to help. With me under the car in my small garage, Paul was giving advice on what to try but to no effect. Eventually he said stop faffing around Nick, or words to that effect, and got under the car himself, no mean feat as it was supported on chassis and axle stands with not a great deal of space underneath. I had been supporting the gearbox on a trolley jack but once he was positioned he took the whole weight of it through his arms, gave it a few vigorous shakes (and the car as well) and bingo it slipped on to the shaft! Needless to say after an hour or so of failed attempts myself, I was mightily grateful but as Paul said quoting Aesop “No small act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted”. He was full of surprises like that.
I’m glad to say I was able to repay the favour a few years later in the early 1990’s coming back from Wiscombe on a busy Sunday evening. The weekend was always quite a social event and a few of us, I recall, were staying in holiday chalets near Wiscombe so I decided to take the family and trailer the Gilbern behind the company car, a Rover 820. On the return journey somewhere around Andover, I spotted Paul’s ever faithful Mark 3 WXM, pulled over at the side of the A303. The hand control servo had packed up. So I unloaded my car off the trailer and managed to winch his car on instead, which was a tad exciting on a narrow lay-by in heavy traffic. Paul joined me and the kids in the Rover back to our house in Twickenham, with my wife following in the Gilbern. Kids being kids, there were endless questions about how he came to be injured which he responded to with great patience. But we did manage to get Paul and car safely home to Chalfont St Giles after a brief food stop at home. But I did have to explain to our car fleet manager why the clutch on the Rover was shot at only 8,000 miles.
Paul was a great guy, enthusiastic and endowed with a dry sense of humour. He was invariably positive and rarely complained, barring the odd expletive but in later years his injuries did start to take their toll on his health. He contributed an enormous amount to the GOC over many years and he will be greatly missed.
Nick Vandervell
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