Clyde Lennon

[Claude]

Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:14:51 +0000

I received the following email in my general (not car) inbox this morning, which I pass on to this forum, as Jo Lennon requests:

--------------------

Hi
This is to a bunch of you from Jo - Clyde's wife. Clyde is dying and I do not expect him to last the week. He suddenly went downhill (not on skis I hasten to add!) at the end of last week and, cut a long,long story short, he is now in Sobell House Hospice where they are taking care of him. On Sunday morning when I went in to see him he said:"Jo, you have to let me go, I can't take any more."

So that is what Angus Thea and I are doing, the doctors could make him a little better and he could survive some more weeks, but we have all agreed that just breathing is not the same as living. All pretty tough, but he is so out of it on drugs he slips in and out of lucidity and he is ready to die now whereas, even a week ago, he was not. Don't text or try to call him as his phone is switched off. Can you pass this news onto anyone you think might be interested as I am not sure of all his friends and contacts in the Porsche, Bristol, work or off roading world.

with thanks - and, yes, I know that you all wish us well and that it was otherwise - so do we
Jo

[Kevin H]

I received the same message from Jo. Very sad news, but unfortunately not unexpected.

Clyde was one of the first friends I made in the Bristol community in the late 1990s and he helped me establish the old BEEF mail list which evolved into this site. His first Bristol was a 411 S3. In recent years he has been developing a 406 Special with a Volvo engine and transmission. He has done a lot of work investigating alternative power trains for the 406.

Clyde is a thoroughly nice guy whom I have enjoyed many a fine lunch and beer with on my visits to the UK.

My sincere condolences to his family. He will be missed by many people.

[irienz]

I am very saddened to read the news about Clyde. We never met (although he bought a 411 from New Zealand and took it to England about the same time as I was doing the reverse), but I fondly remember the well-expressed and thoughtful insights in his numerous posts in the early days of the BEEF email list. I wish I could find a post of which I can recall only its impact on me at the time. It was a wonderful description of what made Bristol cars so special and unique. It captured the essence of what is special to those of us who are drivers, rather than those simply attracted by snobbish pretensions of exclusivity. I have missed Clyde's writing and his departure will leave a big hole in our little community.

Chris Browne

[Thor]

Clyde is one of the people I came to know entirely through this forum, but I subsequently met him on a few occasions as well, including a visit he made to my works a couple of years ago. A decent, interesting, articulate, but eloquent man. We all know he had a great passion for cars, but I also had some very interesting exchanges and discussions on modern and historical politics, he had some very well expressed points to make about the recent government of UK and Europe. I can't call him a close freind, but he will definitely be missed.

Jonathan Douglas

[Nick Challacombe]

I also came to know Clyde through this Forum. We shared not only a passion
for cars, with a Bristol emphasis, but we
both shared the same type of illness.
Clyde came to see me whilst I was recovering from my last fight and within
just a few weeks his had returned.
We talked on the internet about cars and he introduced me to our shared
cancer help group.
He encouraged me to become a "buddy", one who is at the end of a 'phone to
listen to others problems.
I am very grateful to him for that.
A nicer, thoughtful, kind and general good sort would be hard to find. He
was generous with his time for others,a wonderful father
and husband.
My thought must be with his family as "there but for the Grace of God" go I.
I just hope that I can be as stoic as Clyde.
Another very good and young man taken by the dreaded illness.

I am very privaliged to have been helped and to have known Clyde.

Nick

[GREG]

Clyde is one of the poeple I was really looking forward to meeting after following his guidlines on buying a Bristol and many other useful contributions and of course seeing his 406 project completed.

This is not to be but I do hope we can find a way to honour his memory at the next concours or similar and I do hope to see his 406 dream one day.

He has my thanks for making me beleive an ordinary working bloke could own and run a Bristol. His family have a lot to be proud of.

My thoughts are with his family

Greg

[RGSchmitt]

I also remember all of Clyde's great messages and will miss him -
and the completion of his Volvo project. I seem to have several
files of emails, dating to 1997 (!) and recall putting a collection
on a website long ago. If there is any "archive" interest, I'll
collect those together.

Bob

"I wish I could find a post of which I can recall only its impact on
me at the time. It was a wonderful description of what made Bristol
cars so special and unique. It captured the essence of what is
special to those of us who are drivers, rather than those simply
attracted by snobbish pretensions of exclusivity. I have missed
Clyde's writing and his departure will leave a big hole in our little
community. "

[Peter.Kent]

Clyde passed away on Monday. He was at Sobell House and the care given in his last days made a bad situation less bad.

Clyde was a good mate. Not many would have happily given up successive weekends to "assist" me on the torque bar renovation (see our article on the subject.). Well, he and Jo did get a dinner out of it!

In the 10 years of our friendship the "big C" has never been absent. Clyde must have been a good patient in the sense that he applied himself to understanding the thing with the same diligence that he applied to everything else. Faced with an operation, he'd happily draw a diagram to explain which bits of plumbing were coming out and how he could get on fine without whatever it was. Right up to the last couple of months, he was optimistic that the thing could be zapped.

According to the staff at the hospital, he was one of their best patients in another sense. There are a lot of depressed people in cancer units but Clyde could be relied on to chivvy up the most miserable. How he could keep so cheerful was extraordinary.

This time last year he'd seemingly made a full recovery after his stomach was removed. I introduced him to Real Tennis and he was making great strides. Then, he felt pain and later it became clear that the kidney had been attacked.

What a shame he didn't complete the 406 project (which is now in my garage). After his family, this was his great passion.

Jo has been great through this but one's heart goes out to her and the two children.

Peter

[Kevin H]

This is an excerpt from an email I received from Clyde's wife Jo.

The funeral will be at 2pm on Wed 7th April St Birinus Church Dorchester on Thames, OX10 7JR, followed by tea (or other restorative drinks) in the village hall. The church is small and there is an annexe with a link so please do not feel that you have to attend. We will take his coffin in on Tuesday evening for a private vigil and then, after the funeral, he will then go off to the crem - we don't want to go. His ashes are going back home to Australia (like the cricketing ones!) and we will keep some here.

We have said no flowers, but if you feel moved so to do, then Sobell House need every penny they can get to give other cancer victims the care and attention that made Clyde's illness more bearable in recent months and his last days so much easier for us as well.