Biography Page

Toby's brother Martin has sent through the following memory of Toby aged 3:

Wagons Ho!!

"This memory goes back to when I was about 9, Mary was about 7 and Toby was about 3. We used to have a red trike which had seen better days but which was still in regular use around the garden - the early training device for later long distance bike rides around the Hampshire/Wiltshire countryside.

During one long hot summer, myself and my sister invented a game called 'Wagons Ho!!' (a token reference to the Westerns we used to watch on our black and white telly). The game consisted of me racing round the lawn as fast as I could, holding onto the handlebars of the trike and shouting 'Wagons Ho!!'. Mary would then attempt to clamber onto the flailing tailgate of the trike as it careered from side to side. This was proving to be a source of some considerable amusement and hilarity but was as nothing compared to the level of hysteria caused when the fledgling Toby then decided to get involved. He certainly proved his propensity for the enjoyment of speed and his complete lack of apprehension.

His slight frame, lack of weight and fearlessness made him the perfect passenger. However fast I tried to push the trike - Toby would want it faster. However much I tried to buck him off - his tenuous hold on the superstructure would become more tenacious. The frenzy of our excitement was only terminated when in a vain attempt to get even more speed out of the trike, we lost control on a bend and collided with the concrete coal bunker. Undaunted we returned to this source of adrenalin-fuelled excitement on numerous occasions."