Obituary: Patrick Marsh -- Late President of the VSCC

Too late last month to express our grief at the unexpected news of the death of Patrick Marsh, the VSCC’s President, at the age of 48, from multiple sclerosis we believe, we now pay tribute to this very enthusiastic participant in the vintage-motoring scene, which called him to high office in the Club. He had been an enthusiastic member of the VSCC since 1941, as the owner of an A7, a car of which Pat continued to own one or more for the rest of his life. However, he was perhaps better-known for his only post-war car, the famous and notably original black ex-Seaman 1-1/2-litre ERA R1B, which he tended and drove so very well in races after buying it from Alan Cottam in the summer of 1964. To the end he was full of plans for its future racing programme.

Indeed, Marsh raced R1B for twenty eventful years, twice winning the Seaman Trophy with it, doing all its maintenance himself.  Educated at Cheltenham and Oxford, in ordinary life he was a Civil Engineer with the Airports Authority and later, with his brother David, a chap equally keen on vintage motoring, Pat was partner in a firm making ornamental ironwork. Pat competed in all kinds of VSCC events in the 30/98 Vauxhalls of which his brother was so fond, and he shared with David the rare sports bull-nose Morris, while in recent times Patrick had built up a Type 35 GP Bugatti with which he won several trophies, and in order to join the Edwardian & Light Car Section of the VSCC he had recently acquired a rather temperamental Bebé Peugeot. As if that was not enough, he rode a “penny-farthing” bicycle on the Boulogne self-propelled frolics.

Patrick Marsh became a member of the VSCC Committee in 1976 and was very rightly elected the Club’s President in 1985. It is truly tragic that he had such a very short spell in office (Roger Collings succeeds him) and, with a loss for effective words to express our feelings, we wish to express our sympathy to Sally and her two teenage daughters. — W.B.