BOB WYATT - A PERSONAL APPRECIATION
It is with great sadness that the vintage and classic car community has learned of the death of Bob Wyatt, on March 27, 2019, aged 87.
Bob would have been proud to be regarded as the founding father of the old Austin movement as we know it
today. That, he unquestionably was.
I first encountered Bob when I was about 15, fifty-odd years ago. I had written asking, in his Vintage Austin Register capacity, for information on the 1930s Austin Twenty Eight. Bob had little to contribute on that particular subject! Yet, after this somewhat unpromising start, we corresponded at different times, on many different topics, over the next 50 years.
This, of course, is a personal recollection, but more formally,
apart from founding the Vintage Austin Register and becoming
it’s leading light, Bob was to become, in later years, the revered
president of The Austin Seven Clubs’ Association.
The VAR emanated from his ownership of a vintage Twelve
Four. Soon the register was extended to include the Sixteen
and Twenty horsepower cars of the same period. The
significance of the initiative was that it created interest in, and
enthusiasm for, models for which there was then virtually none.
Bob went on to write important books on Austin, most notably
perhaps, his history of the Seven (1968) and of the company
itself (1981). For many years these were, quite simply, the only
readily accessible information sources.
Most of Bob’s professional life was spent at the Automobile
Association (AA) where he was instrumental in converting the
fleet of patrolmen’s BSA motorcycle combinations to BMC
minivans. The negotiations brought him into contact with many
of the Corporation’s senior managers and that leverage enabled
him to save invaluable archives and historical artefacts when
destruction of them was planned. Afterwards the material
was generously shared amongst other writers, historians and
enthusiasts.
Not long ago, I had a conversation with Bob about, of all things,
Austin Twenty Eights. ‘I think we know a lot more now than
when you contacted me,’ he reflected. We do indeed. But it is
due to the efforts of Bob Wyatt, to an immeasurable degree,
that that is so; and that the marque Austin, and the vintage
models especially, give enormous pleasure to thousands of people.
Bob would have been proud to be regarded as the founding father of the old Austin movement as we know it
today. That, he unquestionably was.
I first encountered Bob when I was about 15, fifty-odd years ago. I had written asking, in his Vintage Austin Register capacity, for information on the 1930s Austin Twenty Eight. Bob had little to contribute on that particular subject! Yet, after this somewhat unpromising start, we corresponded at different times, on many different topics, over the next 50 years.
This, of course, is a personal recollection, but more formally,
apart from founding the Vintage Austin Register and becoming
it’s leading light, Bob was to become, in later years, the revered
president of The Austin Seven Clubs’ Association.
The VAR emanated from his ownership of a vintage Twelve
Four. Soon the register was extended to include the Sixteen
and Twenty horsepower cars of the same period. The
significance of the initiative was that it created interest in, and
enthusiasm for, models for which there was then virtually none.
Bob went on to write important books on Austin, most notably
perhaps, his history of the Seven (1968) and of the company
itself (1981). For many years these were, quite simply, the only
readily accessible information sources.
Most of Bob’s professional life was spent at the Automobile
Association (AA) where he was instrumental in converting the
fleet of patrolmen’s BSA motorcycle combinations to BMC
minivans. The negotiations brought him into contact with many
of the Corporation’s senior managers and that leverage enabled
him to save invaluable archives and historical artefacts when
destruction of them was planned. Afterwards the material
was generously shared amongst other writers, historians and
enthusiasts.
Not long ago, I had a conversation with Bob about, of all things,
Austin Twenty Eights. ‘I think we know a lot more now than
when you contacted me,’ he reflected. We do indeed. But it is
due to the efforts of Bob Wyatt, to an immeasurable degree,
that that is so; and that the marque Austin, and the vintage
models especially, give enormous pleasure to thousands of people.