'Celebration of Life' for David Duffield.

The following is an account by our President, Tony Hadland who, with his wife Rosemary, attended David Duffield’s ‘Celebration of Life’ event on Friday 20th May, 2016. “Rosemary and I attended the memorial event celebrating the life of David Duffield on what would have been his 85th birthday. It took place at the Bath Mill Lodge Retreat and was attended by more than 100 people, including many members of the Pickwick Bicycle Club and the Centenary Club. The guests were greeted by David's widow Jackie, to whom he was married for 53 years. Moulton folk attending included Gillian Marston, Shaun and Trudy Moulton (who have just moved to Cornwall), Daved Sanders, Keith Hales and Dan Farrell. There was an interesting display of photos and documents relating to David's cycling achievements. A nice touch was that the handrails of the long and winding pathway leading to the reception room were decorated with David's press passes for the many races he commentated on over the years. Five guest speakers gave their reminiscences of David. They included Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby, racing cyclist and framebuilder Brian Rourke and John Macnaughtan. John, now co-owner of Pashley and the man in charge at Moulton Bicycle Company, recalled how he and David had together introduced the Raleigh brand in Australia. It was a poignant but enjoyable celebration of a remarkable man who, towards the end of his career, was the victim of a most disgraceful campaign by an ignorant clique of jealous cycling journalists, none of whom had achieved a fifth of what David did. Rosemary and I were proud to have known him for a mere 35 of his nearly 85 years. The party ended on an appropriately upbeat note with everyone singing happy birthday to David.” Pictures by Tony Hadland. Listening to the reminiscences. Shaun Moulton is in the foreground to the left and Daved Sanders to the right Jackie Duffield (centre) chats to old friends Carlton Kirby (2nd from left) and John Macnaughtan (centre) Collecting up David's press passes.