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Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 17 No.1 March 2020 21
Who Were Your Early Namesakes?
Researching Your Ancestors

The Pickwick Bicycle Club has been in continuous existence since its formation in
1870, and the soubriquets of its members have been faithfully passed down from
generation to generation. If you would like to receive the available history of
your soubriquet, please contact Joseph Smiggers at:
steve@stephenbullen.com and you will receive the information by return.

Whiffers – Footman at “Swarry” in orange plush

“Gentlemen, our friend Mr. Whiffers (everybody looked at the individual in orange), our friend Mr.
Whiffers has resigned.' Universal astonishment fell upon the hearers. Each gentleman looked in his
neighbour's face, and then transferred his glance to the upstanding coachman. 'You may well be
sapparised, gentlemen,' said the coachman.
'I will not wenchure to state the reasons of this irrepairabel loss to the service, but I will beg Mr.
Whiffers to state them himself, for the improvement and imitation of his admiring friends.' The
suggestion being loudly approved of, Mr. Whiffers explained. He said he certainly could have wished to
have continued to hold the appointment he had just resigned. The uniform was extremely rich and
expensive, the females of the family was most agreeable, and the duties of the situation was not, he was
bound to say, too heavy; the principal service that was required of him, being, that he should look out of
the hall window as much as possible, in company with another gentleman, who had also resigned. He could
have wished to have spared that company the painful and disgusting detail on which he was about to
enter, but as the explanation had been demanded of him, he had no alternative but to state, boldly and
distinctly, that he had
been required to eat cold meat.”

T P Wright pre 1881
G L Edwards 1886 to 1906 Hon. Member
R W Morton 1925 to 1936
Major H L Hodgson IA 1938 to 1941
H G Turner 1943 to 1970
W W Wood 1970 to 1986
Bill E Tonkin 1987 to 2018
Richard Jack 2018 to present
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The Bagman – “Your health, Sir” said the bagman with the lonely eye

“'Your health, Sir,' said the bagman with the lonely eye, bestowing an approving nod on Mr. Snodgrass.
Mr. Snodgrass acknowledged the compliment.”

Tony Parsons 1981 to 1998
Simon Fellman 2002 to present