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The people you meet
GUIDO remembers a great enthusiast…
Can’t recall when I first met Trevor Thomas, but know it was over 20 years ago and probably at a bike show or meeting of some sort. He was one of those people who don’t have a big public profile, but are hugely influential in motorcycling.
Spannerman and I were at his funeral recently, and we probably learned more about the history of him and his family in the 60-minute service than we had over decades of discussion with the man himself. Which is not to say we didn’t know him – far from it.
You don’t spend so much time with an intelligent and feisty gent without getting to know him. But it’s extraordinary that you can learn so little of his personal history.
I didn’t know he was a founding President of the classic club in NSW, nor had I met his three lively and smart sisters. Like many friends, I only knew he had at least maybe one sis, who may have had more than one personality.
One of the great contradictions in Trevor's life was that he was hurt in a spill on a borrowed Triumph twin when he was just 18 and, despite the fact his injuries saw him spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, he held a life-long love for the brand. In fact, some 41 years after the crash, he still owned a bathtub model twin which he hoped would one day be restored. It was, but he never got to see it in his shed, as he was in hospital by then.
He told me one night that, if he’d landed an inch (or couple of centimeters) either way, he would have been walking – and probably would have lived longer.
Trevor was born in 1948, and completed an honours degree in sociology at the University of NSW in 1980. He also finished a diploma in rehab sciences. As you can tell by that, he was not someone to let a fairly catastrophic injury stop him from engaging with life. It also armed him to give various nurses -- and Dana, the great love of his life -- a qualified and very hard time if his care was not up to scratch.
His sister Wendy tells us, "He enjoyed getting drunk with mates at the Bathurst races. I remember him telling me that one year he had to be very rude to the police to get them to arrest him and put him in the drunk tank with his mates -- he wasn't going to be left out just because he was in a chair!"
My favourite memory is of him visiting Melbourne and staying with the family for a while. Sandy Harbutt, the owner/director of the bike movie Stone, and spouse Elizabeth, dropped in for a wild and woolly afternoon involving food, grog, debate, music and all the other great things. Trevor was in his element, arguing furiously and reaching for another drink.
Over time he became an advisor to a number of people on classic motorcycles, including Pickles Auctions, and was an editor for the Redbook dealer guide for some years. One of his famous moments was working as a consultant for a prominent Queensland collector, who he outlived.
He also worked with me on a number of motorcycle magazines, supplying historical material, research, photos and show reports.
In his later years, Trevor was working on a complete catalogue of Triumph models over the century-plus of its history. Along the way he made the significant discovery that the marque had in fact produced a powered bike earlier than the widely-accepted date of 1902.
That's a story which, sadly, someone else will now have to write.
It’s delightful to see that this, the pic you see here, was taken late in life and showed him at his most content and handsome. I know that was down to Dana.
He left us much too early, and will be missed.
You’re always welcome to get in touch (and send counsellors) via the palatial MT offices at locked bag 12, Oakleigh 3166; Or on the wire at guy.allen@traderclassifieds.com.au.
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