Peter Upton

Many of the older members of Oxford City RC will be sad to hear that Peter Upton finally lost his battle against the effects of multiple vascular strokes and passed away at Chipping Norton Nursing Home on Thursday 21th January.

Joining us at OCRC in the mid-1950s from Swindon, Peter soon found a young lass to keep him in Oxford (my sister Jeannette) and encouraged my burgeoning interest in cycling by taking me to Ken Lansbury's shop to buy bits for my first ever race bike. Pete soon excelled in local and national time trials at all distances up to 12 hours. In 1956 (pre-tribars) he set the club tandem 30-mile record at 1:05:50 which it remained until 2008 when Howard and Mark finally broke it!

But Peter's preference was for the cut and thrust of Road Racing although he also enjoyed track racing at Palmer Park in Reading. He competed in our Charlie Caines road race many times including racing at Blenheim Palace in 1960. He also travelled to race on the Isle of Man, and in Holland at the Leiden Twinning events in the late fifties.

Peter’s cycling career was terminated however in 1960 when he was knocked off from behind, sustaining a badly broken leg which was eventually reset at the - then new - Princess Margaret’s hospital in Swindon.

Being unable to race he began to develop a major talent as a photographer specialising in graphic artistic sweeps of form and colour. He won various national photographic competitions and eventually was appointed a Fellow of the RPS. For the next several years Peter undertook a series of lecture tours around the country, speaking to photographic clubs, colleges etc., and setting and judging national competitions.

Pete leaves a wife, two children and two grown-up grandchildren; I’m sure we all wish them well at this sad time.

John Jenkins