Larry (the Limey!) Walpole died recently after a short illness. He was 87 years old. "Daddy" Walpole was a fixture along Canada Road on the San Francisco Peninsula for many years.
I first met Larry in 1991 while riding up the Canada/Ralston footpath after a club ride with the PenVelo. We were both Londoners and had grown up in the post war years when London was cycling crazy and many cycling clubs were available to train the beginning cyclists.
Larry is 14 years older than me and we never met in London but we were good friends for the past 18 years. He enthralled me with his tales of the war. He was deposited on Dunkirk beach head on D Day + three to build airfields for the British Mustang fighters. The tales he told me would make your hair curl. Some of them might even have been true.
A month ago, my wife, Iris, and I took Larry to see the Jeremiah O'Brian, docked in San Francisco. The Jeremiah was one of the fleet of ships that delivered troops to the beaches at Dunkirk. Larry was on it for his trip to Dunkirk. When he saw it in San Francisco, it brought back all those old memories and he confided in me that he never thought to survive the war, let alone seeing the ship that took him to Dunkirk 66 years later in California!
He told my wife and I that he was in charge of a pickup on the ship that had signs saying "HIGH EXPLOSIVES" but it was really full of beer!
He was a founding member of the Belmont Bike Club and Pedali Alpini. He set the best time for the inaugural race up Kings Mountain, back when it was steel bikes and iron men. The silver cup with his name on it was in the San Mateo bike shop Cyclepath for many years. He was a very good hill climber in his younger days but as he only weighed about 8 stone that was not unexpected. He won an early race up Mount Hamilton or so he told me.
He told me that Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey, Jobst Brandt, Steve Lubin, etc all got their start with the Belmont Bike Club; perhaps others may have first hand knowledge of those days.
He also obtained a set of wooden rollers in those early days and helped set up roller races in the Bay Area.
In recent years, he could be seen sitting on the guard rail on Canada Road just after the start at Hwy 92 offering advice (!) to the passing cyclists.
Brian Sandilands
I first met Larry in 1991 while riding up the Canada/Ralston footpath after a club ride with the PenVelo. We were both Londoners and had grown up in the post war years when London was cycling crazy and many cycling clubs were available to train the beginning cyclists.
Larry is 14 years older than me and we never met in London but we were good friends for the past 18 years. He enthralled me with his tales of the war. He was deposited on Dunkirk beach head on D Day + three to build airfields for the British Mustang fighters. The tales he told me would make your hair curl. Some of them might even have been true.
A month ago, my wife, Iris, and I took Larry to see the Jeremiah O'Brian, docked in San Francisco. The Jeremiah was one of the fleet of ships that delivered troops to the beaches at Dunkirk. Larry was on it for his trip to Dunkirk. When he saw it in San Francisco, it brought back all those old memories and he confided in me that he never thought to survive the war, let alone seeing the ship that took him to Dunkirk 66 years later in California!
He told my wife and I that he was in charge of a pickup on the ship that had signs saying "HIGH EXPLOSIVES" but it was really full of beer!
He was a founding member of the Belmont Bike Club and Pedali Alpini. He set the best time for the inaugural race up Kings Mountain, back when it was steel bikes and iron men. The silver cup with his name on it was in the San Mateo bike shop Cyclepath for many years. He was a very good hill climber in his younger days but as he only weighed about 8 stone that was not unexpected. He won an early race up Mount Hamilton or so he told me.
He told me that Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey, Jobst Brandt, Steve Lubin, etc all got their start with the Belmont Bike Club; perhaps others may have first hand knowledge of those days.
He also obtained a set of wooden rollers in those early days and helped set up roller races in the Bay Area.
In recent years, he could be seen sitting on the guard rail on Canada Road just after the start at Hwy 92 offering advice (!) to the passing cyclists.
Brian Sandilands
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