Page 20 - PBCMarch2018

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 15 No.1 March 2018 !20

Joseph Atto - 1833 to 1918

Apropos the front cover picture we should remember our illustrious member as we
approach the 100th anniversary of his death. Joseph Atto was a member of the Pickwick
th
Bicycle Club from 1878 until his death on the 30 June 1918. Under his soubriquet of
Nathaniel Pipkin, he had an abiding love for the PBC and on his passing, he bequeathed
£1000, with the express wish that “the Club shall, out of the income thereof, defray
the expense of an annual toast to be known as “Past President Joseph Atto’s Toast of
Prosperity” to the Pickwick Bicycle Club”.
Thus it has been an integral part of the Club luncheons, that the toast is drunk in punch,
prepared from a secret recipe, and brought to the President’s table in the magnificent
silver punchbowl, by two invited members of the Chelsea Hospital – our scarlet-coated
friends, the Boys of the Old Brigade.
But what else do we know of this magnanimous fellow? There were some notes about him in
the March 2016 magazine courtesy of our esteemed Mr Brooks, But to recap………

“At the age of 60 in 1893, he won the Pickwick Club gold medal for his ride of 281miles in the Great North
Road 24hr Eme trial, and he apparently received a Club silver medal for a ride of 198.25miles in
19.5hours.
He was elected President of the Pickwick Club in 1913, and members recall him riding to Poynings
(Brighton) & back to aPend a club run in 1914. Joseph was always happy when able to recall his life in the
‘70s (1870s!). He worked & played hard, and put his longevity down to his favourite past Eme of cycling,
He was a disciple of the open road and believed himself to be a living, talking advert for its health giving
advantages. Joseph was sEll cycling regularly unEl a few years prior to his death when he had one leg
amputated.
During his Presidency of the Pickwick Club, he was paid the excepEonal compliment of being elected an
honorary member of the Boston Bicycle Club -the oldest cycling club in America.”

At the December AGM it was again suggested that a Club gathering might be organized at
Chingford Mount Cemetery at the end of June to commemorate his death. Mr Brooks & Bill
the Turnkey are exploring the possibilities and members will be notified in due course.
For those of you that don’t use the Club website, we close this page with the last verse of
the poem about “ Pipkin”.

There is a silence in the Club Room,
But we find about this place
Resignation more than sorrow,
And a hope in ev’ry face,
For the empty chair reminds us
As each one his Cross surmounts
That it isn’t Life, but Courage