Richard Austin Cottrell (29.10.51. - 7.11.03)

Richard Austin Cottrell - his middle name was given to him because his dad was saving up for a new car, an Austin 7, and then Richard was born and goodbye new car!
Richard Cottrell was a wonderful man who could always be relied on to help out a friend in trouble. He was a regular at the Pied Bull, it was Richard's local as well as the Bexley TOMCC club HQ. There are many of us in the Bexley Triumph Club who have cause to thank Richard for his help with advice, frame, forks, engine repair and even sidecar fitting although he didn't really like sidecars. His 1992 Trident 750 outfit, which Richard built to take his daughter Jayne and son Scott to rallies, is still in service in my ownership as Santa's Sleigh for the club Christmas Toy run and other duties.
Richard was a Brummie and would tell tales, over a few Guinnesses, of his early days in Birmingham riding a huge selection of bikes from Vincent Comets and Ariel Red Hunters to a Raleigh Wisp! There were also tales of his time in the Double Zero club where to be accepted as a member you had to ride the wrong way over a flyover in Birmingham.
Richard always liked boats and fishing and boasted of being an ex-Navy man. In fact he lasted just one week in the Navy, sailing from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight and packing it all in when he was refused leave to go down the pub at the weekend. Much later he owned a motor cruiser, which he used to keep moored on the Medway at Yalding. We often used to go down to the Anchor pub at Yalding where Richard would tell stories about his powerful outboards and fishing trips on the Medway.
After his Naval career Richard became an apprentice engineer with the CEGB working on such famous Northern power stations as Drax and Ferrybridge, both of which he managed to shut down when he brought his fellow union members out on strike being, at 18, the youngest union convenor in the country.
But Richard became disillusioned with power station politics and in 1982 moved South where he got a job with Fisher Controls, part of GEC, and met Sharon whom he married in 1982. With GEC, he travelled the world, only just jetting back from Norway to attend the birth of Jayne in 1984 but managed to be on hand for the birth of Scott in 1989.
Richard joined Bexley TOMCC in 1994 after a short period with the Mighty South London branch. By this time he had left GEC and formed his own company, Anser Analytics, manufacturing analysers for the oil industry. Richard's manufacturing firm, which had many lathes and pieces of clever engineering kit, often became a motorcycle repair workshop when the need arose. I remember Richard - using a blowtorch and a forklift truck - dismantled a Triumph rear hub, which had defeated the best efforts of all others.
Richard loved going to rallies in England, Holland and Belgium; he was always keen to go on rides on his Bonneville, which he had purchased after selling his motor cruiser. Richard's Bonnie was always clean, fast and oil tight - much more so than most others in the club, including my own 650 Trophy.
Richard was never a regular member of the Bexley Dance Team but, if the music was right (Stones or early Beatles) and the beer was flowing, Richard would leap about with the best of us; he had his own style.
Eventually, Richard sold up his share in his company, finding the work too stressful and, after working for 10 months as a salesman, in 2001 Richard got a job with Kenfeed, part of Wallace and Tearnan in Sevenoaks. Richard enjoyed his time at Kenfeed; it was a steady job where he could use his years of engineering experience and it enabled him to have a settled home life and to spend more time with his children.
Richard was taken from us just as he had begun to settle into a less stressful life of 9-to-5 work and a new relationship with Diane, with whom he celebrated his 52nd birthday on 29th October this year. I feel privileged to have known Richard as a friend and will always treasure the many memories of our time together. I am sure that his many friends and relatives feel the same as I do.
Richard was a lovely man, a one-off, and the world is a lesser place without him.
Tank
Richard Austin Cottrell, born Birmingham 29 October 1951; Motorcyclist, Union Convenor, Engineer, Salesman, Company Director.
Married Sharon Cottrell 1982 one daughter Jayne Dorothy, one son Scott, separated 1994.
Died, Tunbridge Wells, 7 November 2003.