VINCENT HRD OWNERS CLUB ROCKED BY SCANDAL

When wealthy retired scientist John Lumley died at the age of 76 in a hospice of cancer on 9.4.2009, he left a substantial estate that included a collection of over forty classic and vintage motorcycles worth more than £1 million. Sometime between his death and his funeral on 21.4.2009, this collection vanished from his home, near Sevenoaks, Kent, along with other assets that could not consequently be valued for probate purposes. 

John Lumley was a member of several motorcycle clubs in his lifetime, including the Vintage Motor Cycle Club or VMCC and the Vincent HRD Owners Club or VOC, to which he had belonged since the 1950s. He was accorded the honour of an obituary in MPH, written by  Dick Wheeldon. Mr Wheeldon wrote: "I am certain that his enthusiasm will be remembered in future years by those who are the new keepers.” and rounded off his homage to John Lumley by telling readers that John Lumley’s family had “…asked that donations be made to appropriate charities – the Hospice or Cancer Research. This is entirely in keeping with the wishes of a very practical man.” 

Some readers found Dick Wheeldon's reference to “new keepers” intriguing; John Lumley was not known to have sold any of his motorcycles prior to his death and, just a couple of weeks after his death, it was unlikely that his Estate would have disposed of them, especially as the Estate’s Trustees, Thackray Williams LLP of Bromley, Kent had only just published the Deceased Estate notice on 1.5.2009 in The London Gazette. In March 2010, eleven months after John Lumley's death, officials and members of the Vincent HRD Owners Club received the following text by email, as did other individuals and bodies in the classic and vintage motorcycle world.

VOC OFFICERS SAVE DEAD VOC MEMBER'S £1 MILLION MOTORCYCLE COLLECTION

Several senior VOC officers and executive committee members should be congratulated and made Honorary Members for ensuring that a dying old man’s deathbed wishes that his £1 million motorcycle collection  be sold and the proceeds donated to charity were carried out without the interference of the  executors of his will and the British taxman.

North Kent Section VOC member John Lumley’s collection included  three Series A Rapides, five A Meteors and Comets, a Model W, a postwar Comet or two, a Black Prince, a Series C Shadow, two Brough Superior SS100s, a Velocette KTT, a 1930s Square Four and about twenty other motorbikes. The VOC officers and members who ended up with bikes each paid the handsome sun of £1000 to charity and the solicitors and the heir  to John Lumley’s estate and his wife have the receipts to prove it. Their all pleased as punch but the heir, 84 yrs old with cancer, is suffering anxiety after being informed that the estate has been reopened and that HM Revenue & Customs have opened a file on it and might charge the estate 40% of £1 million. To the heir and his wife, it was just a worthless  pile of old motorcycle bits.

 The dying man’s brother, 84 yrs with cancer himself threw a well known Vincent dealer out of the hospice for harrassing John Lumley. Then John Lumley dying in the hospice said get rid of it all for charity, so they tryed to do the right thing. They were helped by a senior VOC EC member who took the keys from the heir’s wife the day after the death and cleared out the huge collection before it could be valued and registered in Probate. The heir’s wife said John Lumley was in his right mind even though he was dying of cancer and drugged on morphine. First she said she made a list of the bikes with her dying brother in law and gave it to the helpful man from the club then later remembered the list was made by VOC members coming to the hospice and doing it with John Lumley but the list was not in his handwriting. She didn't keep a copy of the list because there aren't any photocopiers in hospice bedrooms and the VOC EC member who was so helpful in clearing out all those worthless old motorcycle bits has'nt  shown the list to the Executors who have reopened John Lumleys estate yet.

 Some of the VOC officers and members who got bikes describe this list as a letter from John Lumley saying who was to get what. But no one can produce this “letter”. Thats OK because its not in John Lumleys handwriting and he was too poorly to write anything so it probabley wouodnt be a legal document anyway. John Lumleys dying wishes were not recorded. They forgot to call in his solicitors and a doctor to certify that he was in his right mind to change his will.  The only legal document is John Lumley’s will, which left everything to his brother, house and contents, period. Shame the most valuable contents got removed before they could be valued or the £800,000 the heir got would have been a lot more and he could have given more than the £1000 per bike to the cancer sufferers his brother wanted to have the money through the hospice.

 The heirs never thought of calling in qualified valuers. John Lumley’s solicitors, where the executor is a senior partner who saw the collection and agreed with the sister-in-law that it was old junk, never called them in either. And the VOC EC member who was helping the heirs must have forgotten to mention the true value of the collection to them. And nobody asked questions when several vanfuls of £1 million of rare motorcycles were removed from John Lumley’s house.

The solicitors reopened the estate and wrote a letter asking for information to one of the honest VOC members trying to blow the whistle on the disappearance of the collection on 5th February 2010. This letter was sent to some VOC members and to the VOC sections but a senior VOC officer said he blocked it. Another attempt has been made to circulate the letter to VOC sections and it has been sent to MPH for publication because MPH should be the first to publish it before other magasines so the club does'nt look bad. But why did he block it? Why are the VOC officers and members who got John Lumleys bikes not answering questions about it now? Why did the senior VOC officer and EC member who took the bikes not tell the heirs and the solicitors how much they were really worth?

 Who cares? Talking about this would be bad for the club wouldnt it? That’s why the senior club management want to throw the whistleblowers out of the VOC, from bringing the club into disrepute like John Mossey. But their having trouble with this because the whistleblowers have a right to be heard at expulsion proceedings at a GCM and the VOC management want to bury the story of the John Lumley Collection. This is what happens when TROUBLEMAKERS start making trouble about VOC officers who, after all, give there valuable time up to serve the club and its members. They deserve respect and asking them questions that make them go all bent out of shape and red in the face and all that is disrespectful. Its a diabolical liberty and members have no right to upset the club management, do they? After all, the lucky old heir of that weird old git who only let a handful of people past his door to see his Aladins Cave got £800,000. But like his wife said, their not feeling so lucky anymore because Her Majestys Revenue & Customs has opened a file and now it is being investigated by HMRCs investigations branch. But they are only the beneficiaries not the estate. Its the solicitor acting as executor who is perrsonaly responsable and will have to explain to the tax inspectors where their cut of the missing £1 million of assets is.

 HMRC can start with the club’s own magazine, where Bob Stafford has given details of some of the most valuable John Lumley bikes since June 2009. Then they can ask the the solicitors for the receipts to charity with the names of lucky new owners of John Lumleys bikes on them. The bikes are taxable because the owner did not die more than seven years after they say he gave them away. A tax accountant in the club who did see the letter from the solicitors asking for help in finding the bikes said the people who got bikes should have declared them for tax. A former policeman in the club said that a serious offence had been committed when the bikes were taken after death and before probate and that people who knowingly received the bikes could possibly face charges too. But the VOC management will protect it’s own. They are already closing ranks and threatening anyone who asks embarrassing questions. So if you see an ex-John Lumley Series A Rapide or some other lovely machine from his collection, buy the VOC officer or member riding it a beer and congratulate him for putting another Vincent HRD on the road. Lick his arse like a good little VOC member, or he will have you expelled from the club.

And what about the cancer sufferers Jonh Lumley told his sister in law he wanted the money to go to? Well, sod them! Their going to die anyway arent they? Let the NHS look after them if they cant pay for their care. What about the rightful heir? Sod him too! He’s got cancer and if he and his wife did’nt know what they had, they dont deserve to have it. Ignorance is bliss. They got £800,000 for nothing so why shouldnt the bikes go to people who will cherish them? But their not ignorant any longer! Their just two scared old people with enough problems of there own without all this greif on there plates. They think the taxman is going to stick a huge bill on them and the solicitors are going to send more big bills. Meanwhile, let’s all give a big hand to the VOC officiers and members helped the Lumley family in order to help themselves.

 There known because the heirs helped make a list using the charity reciepts and others were named in MPH and on the internet. The senior club official who went into John Lumley’s house after his death to clear out all “the old motorcycle bits” even said that he will put a special memorial plate on his new £200,000 Series A Rapide that he got for a £1000 to charity honouring the memory of John Lumley. What a very honourable bloke!

 We’re lucky to have these guys running our club because no one else can be bothered to do it. Really? More like no one decent and honest wants to work with these guys. So get down to your solicitors today and make a will, then buy your next of kin a gun and teach them how to shoot so they can protect the bikes if you fall ill and some VOC’s Burke & Hare Section come calling to help you out. Oh, sorry, its illegal to shoot intruders in Britain so forget about the gun and buy your nearest and dearest some judo courses to help throw your new best friends off the property. A subscription to the local gym is good because some of these guys are overweight.

John Lumley suddenly had loads of friends when he was dying, a man who let very few people get close to him. Luckily some of those people arent going to sit on there hands and let this happen, even if they get thrown out of the VOC by the people bringing the club into disrepute. If you think you have even half an ounce of decency in you and you know anything about any of John Lumleys bikes because there are a few not accounted for, get in touch with Debbie Korb of Thackray Williams solicitors at xxxxxxxxxxxx@thackraywilliams.com or the executor who is Linda Gabriel on xxxxxxxxxxxx@thackraywilliams.com

See the letter for details. This is the letter that the top management of YOUR club, for which YOU pay, did’nt want you to see, the letter they wont circulate or publish in MPH.

Alf Garnett

Awkward Section (Recognition Pending)

Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club

Although "Alf Garnett" got a few details wrong, subsequent events and revelations have shown his account to have been surprisingly accurate. The fury of the VOC management was unsurprising and the April 2010 issue of the VOC monthly journal MPH carried the following editorials by the club's Chairman and Secretary, Tom Kirker and Andrew Everett.

 

Mr Everett was quick to attribute responsibility for the "Alf Garnett" polemic to VOC members Charlie Cannon and myself, although he would later admit to a Special General Committee Meeting of the Vincent HRD Owners Club in Banbury on 16.10.2010, convened to expel us from the VOC, that there was no proof to support any of the allegations made against us by the club's Executive Committee. Mr Kirker was more measured than his colleague, Mr Everett, who made a number of allegations, some of which were certainly defamatory and possibly libellous. 

However, Mr Kirker repeated the story that John Lumley had decided to give all his motorcycles away to his friends in return for a "modest donation to charity". Research has shown that a total of £5,000 was given to charity by a handful of the lucky beneficiaries of John Lumley's alleged deathbed "altruism", to borrow Tim Kirker's term. £5,000 equates to around 0.05% of the estimated value of the John Lumley Collection. Mr Kirker's reference to members' children did not go unnoticed, subsequent developments indicating that four adult offpsring of senior Vincent HRD Owners Club officials and officers received ex-John Lumley motorcycles.

Eighteen months later, twenty-one of the missing motorcycles have been found in the possession of seventeen individuals, most of whom are officials and members of the Vincent HRD Owners Club, one of the world’s most exclusive clubs of its kind, known amongst members as the VOC. When rumours began to circulate that senior VOC officials including several members of the club's 12-strong ruling Executive Committee were involved and several club members who had known John Lumley began pressing for transparency, the VOC management was forced to react. Unfortunately for he public image of the club, the management chose to shoot the messengers rather than the officials whose actions had embroiled the Vincent HRD Owners Club in what would develop into the biggest scandal to hit the club in the six decades since it was founded.

John Lumley’s main passion was for prewar motorcycles manufactured by the legendary firm of Vincent HRD in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, often described as the Bentley of the motorcycle world. Readers unfamiliar with this marque, which ceased motorcycle production in 1955, can read a potted history by clicking here. However, he was enthusiastic about motorcycles in general and his collection included a couple of Brough Superior SS100s, like the machine Lawrence of Arabia was riding when he had his fatal accident, an extremely rare Coventry Eagle Flying-8, which is very like the SS100, at least five rare Scott Flying Squirrels, a Velocette KTT racer, an Ariel Square Four and other prewar machines by Rudge, Douglas and Norton. He also had a number of lesser but nonetheless desirable machines dating from the 1940s to the 1960s.

John Lumley with his Vincent HRD Model W

John Lumley’s Vincent HRD and Vincent collection included three late 1930s 1000cc veetwin Series A Rapides along with five 500cc Series A Comet and Meteor single cylinder machines, including the 1937 Comet offered by its recipient just two days after John Lumley’s funeral. There was also a rare Model PS, the sporting single powered by a Rudge Sports Python motor, produced before Vincent HRD began making its own engines, and an even rarer example of the water-cooled 250cc Model W. John Lumley also had some postwar Vincent HRD and Vincents, as the marque became in 1949, including a Series B Rapide, a Series C Black Shadow, a Series C Rapide, a couple of 500cc Series C Comets, a Series D Black Knight, a Series D Black Shadow and a humble but scarce Firefly moped.

The last Vincent HRD Series A Rapide sold publicly realised a hammer price at Bonham’s in 2008 of over £200,000. A Brough-Superior SS100 has recently been sold for more than £280,000 and a Coventry Eagle Flying 8, one of no more than twenty known to survive, was sold some years ago for £120,000. The prewar Vincent HRD Meteor and Comet singles made from 1935 to 1939, of which John Lumley had five, are worth an average of £25,000. A Model PS in working order might be worth £30,000 to £40,000 although it is hard to value this motorcycle as no more than six examples survive. 

All in all, John Lumley’s collection of motorcycles and rare spare parts was probably worth more than £1 million. This estimate seems vindicated by the £400,000-plus valuation said to have been established by an independent assessor engaged by the executors of the John Lumley Estate in the wake of the row generated by concerned Vincent HRD Owners Club members acting as whistleblowers in the months following John Lumley’s death in April 2009.