Correspondence and photos courtesy of William’s son, John Bispham, 2022
Hello, my father, William Robert (Bob) Bispham, passed away in 2007 and I have only recently taken possession of some of his property. Dad was a keen cyclist and I have several photos and certificates from his time trials in the 1950’s. He was the younger brother of Jim (James) Bispham, who was tragically killed in 1935 in a cycle-v-car accident. As I’m sure you’re aware Jim was a member of Farnborough CC, as it was then. I have quite a few documents about FCC from this time including Jim’s 1935 membership card.
May I enquire whether the Bispham Memorial Shield is still in existence and if so may I request a photo of it. It is my intention to attend to Jim’s grave, which I have managed to locate but not yet visited and could drop in and share the documents I have that relate to 1930’s FCC.
With best Wishes John Bispham
Thanks for getting back to me. I shall send you a group of photos that I have taken of various documents on my phone and I hope they are of interest to you.
They include a photo of Jim (James) Bispham taken shortly before he died in 1935. Also included are images of Jim’s FCC membership card, a race list in which he participated in 1934 and the results from the first three years (1935/36/37) of the Bispham Memorial Shield.
Also is the breakdown of finances from the BisphamTrophy Memorial Dance to raise funds for the shield and part of a letter from Rumble and Son’s to a Mr W. R. Bispham (Jim’s grandparents) who sent a donation of three guinea’s.
There are further images of Jim’s brother, Bob Bisham (my dad) who was considerably younger than his brother and a member of FCC. I include a photo of him cycling in 1952. He used to smoke roll-ups at the time and only rode fixed wheel. There is also a small medal and a photo, that I’m assuming, is club members with various cups? Bob is second from left in the bottom row.
Regards
John Bispham
And in case you were wondering, here are the photos of the Bispham Memorial Trophy that we sent to John.
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