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Here is Bill’s boat, this pictures dates from 1954. St Mildred’s Bay

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The office refurb did bring some great memories to mind via my old photos. Here is a great chap, Bill Miller of Westgate. When we were kids Bill used to row us round the Bay for 6d. The children used to queue up to go in his clinker built boat for a 15 minute ride. Bill was a fisherman who was one of the few people I met who actually knew Louis Wain, the man who drew cats! Bill used to sell Wain a stone of fish once a week for Wain’s cats. For those of you who do not know about a stone it is nearly 7 kgs ! Louis Wain must have had fat cats ! The other person I knew who had met Louis Wain was John Lovely the art dealer from Cliftonville who sold Wain his art materials. I hope this might jog a few memories.

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Marie-Therese and the  Grey cat.
We have just spent three days Spring cleaning the office out, the last Spring clean was in 1981 so there was quite a lot of stuff to cleaned out, I was amazed how much could be packed into a small room. This effort revealed some great old pictures and this is one of them, converted to mono. We are going to put together a picture book of MT in mono and this will be one of those to be used. The office is ready for a new iMac which will be coming in the next few weeks. Then there will be more work to do !

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Here is another shot from the same hill climb. Here I am talking to Claire  from   Pontcharra !

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Lola T290in Chamrousse 1972. This picture came to me at John McDonnell’s memorial service. It shows the Kodak Lola waiting for a run up the hill at Chamrousse in Savoie. I came second ! It was about 22 kms long up the side of the mountain. Pretty interesting in the Lola T290.

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This is the flower tribute at John McDonnell’s service last Friday the 13th. It was the most beautiful bright sunny day with out a cloud in the sky. the service went well and there was a lovely slide show afterwards at the gathering where many of those present were seen in their youth with John. It was a good send off to our old pal.

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January Portrait.

This is the Kirkland bar in Arizona and this photo way taken for a beer company ad which was used in a National campaign. I flew to Arizona to shoot this and had my friend Tom Ritter arrange for some good old boys to drink a few beers for me, it was not difficult.
Tom Ritter, Bob Pulley, Jack Harley and Mac Philip. Jack is no longer with us. According to Tom, “Great characters of the Kirkland scene”.

© Barrie Smith 2012

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John S.McDonnell. RIP
It is with great sadness that I report that my old friend John McDonnell has passed away on the 23rd December 2011.
I met John when he was working for David Piper as a race engineer in 1969 and that is about the only name you might need on a CV as David would not have had him preparing his cars like the Lola T70 and Porsche 917 had he not been a first class engineer. John also worked with Mike d’Udy.  The list of drivers who were successful in cars John had prepared included, Chris Craft, Dickie Attwood, Trevor Taylor, Brian Redman and many others.
John came to help me with our Lola T70 in 1970, his first job was to prepare the car for a 9 hour race in Kyalami in South Africa. Not only did John check over the whole chassis but he also rebuilt the 5 litre Chevrolet Traco engine. The car ran like a train for the whole 9 hours, we won the class, my co-driver, Jackie Pretorius was terrific and it was a very successful race thanks to John’s immaculate preparation.
John and I worked together for the whole of 1972 in France where I was to benefit again from John’s skills. Winning the 24 hour 2 litre class at Le Mans was a highlight of many successes that year.
John’s love of France was assured after a year there and he was a frequent visitor long after my racing career had ended. John and I continued to travel to France together on photo shoots. Before semi retiring John ran a kitchen business in West London where his famous parties where just sensational. He will be missed by many for his joie de vivre and great sense of humour. John RIP.
Photo: Jacques Barichella.

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Christmas tree at the RAC in Pall Mall.
I really took this photo for my old friend Malcolm Clark, when we were young Malcolm and I used to buy Austin Sevens and get them going and sell them on the earn a few pounds, the average purchase price was about £10 and they could be sold for double that once running properly. Happy days in the Cliftonville bungalow of Malcolm’s family where we used the garage listening to Pirate radio stations broadcasting from off the Kent coast !

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Morocco Hat Maker.

I found this colourful chap in Ouarzazate market where he makes these traditional hats.
I had never been to North Africa before and I found it a very pleasant voyage. After three days in Marrakesh we rented a Fiat Punto and drove over the Atlas mountains to the dessert near Ouarzazate. © Barrie Smith 2011