Dover Saints Scooter Club

A Brief History

Last November I was approached to see if I would be interested in going along to the Royal Oak to meet members of the “new” Dover Saints Scooter Club. Most of those reading this article will already know that I was a member of the original Dover Saints Scooter Club in the 1960s and that, for a time, I was Club Secretary.

Lance asked me recently if I would write an article about the history of the Club. After 40 years the memory becomes a bit rusty but I have been able to fill in some of the gaps by speaking to Bill Adey who was our Club President, and his wife Pat. For those who may not know, Bill and Pat ran Dover Motor Cycles, the Lambretta dealers in London Road, Dover. The premises are now a charity shop.

I have included in this article certain photographs and used text which have already appeared elsewhere and which are relevant.

I have used a little poetic licence by including in this article, a brief reference to my pre-Dover Saints days together with a few photographs. I hope you will forgive this small indulgence!

I cannot confess to having been a founder member of the “Dover Saints” but, from what I have been told, it had not been in existence for very long when I joined in 1965. The Club was apparently founded by a Mr Baldwin, then in his 50s, in either late 1964 or early 1965. Some of the founder members were John Dyer, Wendy Simmons, Angela and Bob Cannon, Peter Vickery and Linda Buss. They are pictured here, with the exception of Linda who was working at the time. What a memory!

I left Dover Grammar School for Boys in 1963 with 5 “ologies” and got a job as Junior Clerk in the KCC Planning Department which was located in Cambridge Terrace, Dover

It was then that I bought my first scooter, a 1953 Vespa, possibly a GL2. Unfortunately, I do not have any photographs of that scooter.

The following year the GL2 was traded in for a 1959 Vespa 152L2. That year I joined my first scooter club, the “Vespa Club of Folkestone.” This photograph was taken in Margate outside a relatives’ house in 1964.