I was greatly saddened to hear today of the passing of Mark Eaton, our club Treasurer and Membership Secretary, who went by the name of Redline on here. Although his son has already posted an obituary to inform us all of his death, I thought it was worth me making a separate thread from a club perspective. I knew a while back about his cancer but he asked me not to make it public, which is typical of who he was and how he never made a fuss.

Mark already had his ListerBell on the road when I first went down to see Craig and Lydia towards the end of 2016. His "Zenith" car had already been in Harrods' window promoting the timepieces, and I heard about Craig bumping into him in Venice while on holiday. Seems Mark's shakedown run was a road trip round Europe.... bloody ell. I'm not actually sure where Europe is!
I met him for the first time the following year while at LB on a visit, when there were a few owners there at the same time. He didn't put himself forward cos he was too quiet for that, although his car definitely wasn't! It was after he'd volunteered to take on the Treasurer position that I got to know him better. Very thoughtful - never spoke until he'd considered something first - but also a very clever fella. And when Carol was stepping down as Membership Gal, he took on that role too, as he thought it was interlinked with the Treasurer thing anyway.

So a genuinely Top Bloke who'll be missed, and who leaves quite a hole in the club. Fortunately, another in the series of Top Club Blokes has agreed to step up to the plate to take over Treasurer duties, and that's David Jowsey, pilot of a rather nice Allora, and organiser of the annual Yorkshire Run. Yes I know we're supposed to have nominations/votes for Committee positions, but we don't have the luxury or time to do that, so David it is. I just hope his arm gets better in time for Crimbo after I twisted it up his back...

The other thing Mark was involved with was the remanufacture of overcentre catches. He was dealing with an engineering outfit somewhere near him, but I think he'd become too ill to follow it up recently. I think I've got their name/address somewhere so I'll try and get on top of it, but if you'd been waiting for news of that, now you know why it went quiet.

So a very sad time, but also an opportunity to reflect and consider the important stuff in life. Which as far as I'm concerned, means if you're thinking about doing something, don't mess about, JFDI!! There might not be a "next year" or a time when your finances are looking better, etc! Just go for it! Now, where are all those wimmin....