Remembering Arthur Harrison

Nick Lilley, Thursday, 22 May 2025

Arthur Harrison may be a name unfamiliar to some of you but he was one of CWAM’s founder members and its first chairman back in the mid ‘90s. It is with sadness that I write of his death at the good age of 91. It is indisputable that Arthur lead a full life, in fact it was only after a skiing accident whilst celebrating his 80th birthday, that he exchanged his Goldwing for an electric bicycle.

I remember him saying that as a boy, he learnt to ride on his father’s Norton twin piped 500 cc single and that with its sidecar it provided transport for the family of four. His daughter Meryl has kindly shared the two photographs. The first showing him with his parents outside their home in Coundon. His brother also owned a bike, and there was a sidecar for the family greyhound! Motorcycling was obviously inherent in the Harrison DNA.

In the 1970s he owned a Yamaha 750 XJS and Meryl says: “he set off on this for the keep-fit class which he used to run at the Jaguar Sports Club. Dad arrived home back soon after, his tracksuit in shreds, to tell me that he had gone round a corner and come face to face with a tractor, complete with baling equipment on either side pushing into the hedgerows. “Don’t worry, Meryl” he reassured me, “There wasn’t space to get past so I just let the bike go under the tractor and I leapt off into the ditch.” It was the attached baler that had shredded his tracksuit as it passed over him. As you know it didn’t put him off bikes.”

In 2020 CWAM celebrated its 25th anniversary, which means (and I have only just realised the fact) that this year is our 30th birthday. I don’t know whether the small band of founder members envisaged that 30 years on CWAM would have mentored hundreds of motorcyclists and grown to its present size but it is thanks to their hard work and realisation that there was a need to improve the standard of motorcycling, that we exist.

Although Arthur may not have been active within the group for some years he had a keen interest in its activities and sent me several emails expressing his appreciation of the newsletters and how they enabled him to stay in touch. Our thoughts are with Meryl and the rest of Arthur’s family at this sad time.

If you wish to remember Arthur, the main Thanksgiving Service is at 2pm on Thursday 29 May at Kenilworth Methodist Church, Priory Road, Kenilworth, CV8 1SB. This will be preceded by a short Service of Committal at Charter Chapel, Canley Crematorium, Coventry at 1pm. Meryl finishes by saying “I will however grin broadly to see any motorbikes…”