Many of our older members will remember the smiling face of Barbara when they came to sign on in the mornings. As well, maybe, as the unsmiling face of Bill Rose. Bill has been described as a Marmite character, which is not unusual for an alpha male. However Barbara was almost everyone's favorite race day person who you went to if you had a bike problem or entry issue.

For those that didn't know Barbara and Bill were a married couple, Barbara being Bill's 2nd wife, they married in 1986 Barbara's name first appears in a program as Race Secretary in 1973 Bill had been associated with the club earlier in the 60's as Press Officer. 

During the war Bill was chief accountant at Expanded Rubber which manufactured self sealing aircraft fuel tanks. After the war he joined Gould and Portman as a freelance advertising agent (where he made his money) His clients included such names as Tom Kirby, Taylor Matterson, Gus Kuhn, Harold Daniel's and Eric Oliver..Barbara Bailey, was Bills secretary at Gould and Portman and moved with him when he retired to concentrate on running the club. However during his tenure of the club he did secure its future by making the club financially viable, obviously upsetting a few people in the process. He also instigated moving the club headquarters from Kingston -upon -Thames to Croydon (south London).

Barbara getting the entries ready for programme

Bill was an avid collector of vintage motorcycles and cars, When they both decided to retire at the end of the 1988 season they chose to go back to her birth country and retired to Maroochydore the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane in Queensland in 1988. It was a couple of years later in 1990 that Bill died, and Barbara passed in 2019. They were at the helm of the club for many years and left it in a strong healthy financial position, and are affectionately remembered by many of the club's riders of that era.