Rick

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0408dfc3.jpg"> <bR> <div> <B><><><></B></div> <bR> <div> The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.</div> <bR> <div> From 'The Rubaiyat (ruba`iyat) of Omar Khayyam (Khayyám)', who lived about 1048 to 1122.</div> <bR> <div> <><><></div> <bR> <div> 'Lives are lived and time passes on; nothing that has happened can be changed, we can only learn to live with it.' Chris Drakes</div> <bR> <div> <B><><><></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=145 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0418dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Drax, Dracas, Dracass & Drakes</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Drax, Dracas, Dracass Drakes"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Research"><U>Research</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Race origins"><U>Race & origins</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="UK photos"><U>UK photos</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="DNA"><U>DNA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My DNA"><U>My DNA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="YDNA"><U>Y-DNA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Basques"><U>Basques</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When where"><U>When & where</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id58.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Maps placenames"><U>Maps & placenames</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GRO B/M/D refs"><U>GRO B/M/D refs</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In Loving Memory"><U>In Loving Memory</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Relationships"><U>Relationships</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Trees"><U>Trees</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Drax village"><U>Drax village</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Darfield"><U>Darfield</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id50.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ellerton, Charborough Olantigh"><U>Ellerton, Charborough & Olantigh</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dissolution of Monasteries"><U>Dissolution of Monasteries</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Woolbridge"><U>Woolbridge</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dracas(s)"><U>Dracas(s)</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Burton to Barrow"><U>Burton to Barrow</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="South Kelsey"><U>South Kelsey</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tealby"><U>Tealby</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bayons Manor"><U>Bayons Manor</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Postcard"><U>Postcard</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Halfway House"><U>Halfway House</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Morton Grange"><U>Morton Grange</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Thurlby Hall"><U>Thurlby Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ludford"><U>Ludford</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stainton Hall"><U>Stainton Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gunthorpe Hall"><U>Gunthorpe Hall</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My family"><U>My family</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mum"><U>Mum</U></A>   |   <B>Rick</B>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jeremy"><U>Jeremy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ian"><U>Ian</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mark"><U>Mark</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Martyr"><U>Martyr</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Waterman"><U>Waterman</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sailors life"><U>Sailor's life</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Worth Matravers"><U>Worth Matravers</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="W. 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Tragically they both died young: Rick died in 1991 age 47; Sheila died in 1992, age 42. May God bless them both and keep them safe.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="73458ab0.jpg" border=0 width="600" height="427" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>Rick on his pony 'Becky-Sue' about at Pulloxhill, Bedfordshire about 1947, just after World War II.</I></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="73058c00.jpg" border=0 width="600" height="448" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>1977 The </I><I>Silver Circle Country & Western Club - </I><I>Rick is in the front row, far right with glasses.</I></div> <bR> <div> Rick was a Post Office (GPO), later British Telecom (BT), telephone engineer for most of his working life. His lifetime hobbies & interests included: membership of a Western re-enactment society called '<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/topics/films-and-film-makers/british-westerns-plus" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/"><U><B>Chiltern Cowboys</B></U></A></FONT>'; reading about the old Wild West, the American Civil War, North American Indians; Country & Western music; and American cars. Sadly, he never managed to afford a trip to the United States - it was his dream to visit some of the historical sites such as The Alamo.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="72e58710.jpg" border=0 width="600" height="369" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <I>About 1967 - Rick on one of his several motorbikes.</I></div> <bR> <div> In the 1960s, he was a keen motorcyclist. He was a ‘Track Marshal’ at various UK motorcycle race tracks, included <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.snetterton.co.uk/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.snetterton.co.uk/"><U><B>Snetterton</B></U></A></FONT>, and was a regular visitor, as a spectator, to most motorcycle tracks near London and the home counties. He visited the <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.iomtt.com/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.iomtt.com/"><U><B>Isle of Man TT</B></U></A></FONT> races, and was a regular visitor during the early years at <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.santapod.co.uk/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.santapod.co.uk/"><U><B>Santa Pod</B></U></A></FONT> drag-racing track in Bedfordshire. He once owned the following motorcycles: a 1940s Indian Chief (bright red with a side car), a 1942 750cc Harley Davidson (pale metalic blue with a 'cowboy saddle'), an ex-works Rocket Gold Star, a 1000cc Vincent (Black Shadow?), a Bianchi, a Triumph Tiger Cub, a 650cc Matchless with sidecar (number plate 'oddy for two': ODY42), and a 1950 500cc Sunbeam S7 (Mist Green) - a straight twin with a car-type clutch, shaft-drive and wet cylinder-liners. I later bought the 1942 Harley and the 1950 Sunbeam S7 from him; such old bikes were then for sale at £25 each; many are now worth upwards of £6,000, sometimes more, but £25 was a lot of money then!</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="10cb20170.jpg" border=0 width="800" height="535" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div>                                                                                                             photo by Chris Drakes September 2012</div> <bR> <div> A 1950s mist-green Sunbeam S7 luxury motorcycle, just like the one Rick, then I, once owned during the 1960s at a cost of only £25! Old motorbikes were very cheap back then. This Sunbeam S7 was on display at the Wragby Show & Country Fair, Lincolnshire; the grey bike behind is the lighter weight & thinner tyred sports version: Sunbeam S8.</div> <bR> <div> Rick was a good and loyal friend to all who knew him, including me.</div> <bR> <div> <I>"Humans need fantasy to be human. Take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet you act, like there was some sort of rightness in the universe by which it may be judged: Yes. But people have got to believe that or what's the point?”</I> Terry Pratchett</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>