Last Ride – Allan Mackay

It was sad to hear that our long time member and friend, Allan Mackay, had passed away. He had asked for anyone interested to meet for our usual Thursday breakfast as he felt it might be the last one he would be able to attend, but he passed away only three days before. Eight of us gathered for a somber breakfast November 12.

Allan was a member of Niagara Peninsula Section since the 1980’s and was always kind, friendly, and generous, and his help and wisdom was always given willingly. He had a collection of several British bikes and one French Kohler Escofier, a very rare bike, and would always provide several for display at shows we’d attend. He would also host Motorcycle Field Days for kids when he had his home in Stevensville. This event was held annually for years and was always well attended by parents and their children.

Allan was a man of many talents and interests. He was an aircraft engineer and mechanic and had worked for Bristol Aircraft in England, and DeHavilland, Bombardier and Fleet in Canada, and had been a consultant for Boeing and others. Whenever an aircraft suffered a hard landing, he would be flown to where field repairs had to be made to make the aircraft air-worthy. Along with being an aircraft mechanic and fabricator, he was also a master tin smith and could form any shape out of any kind of sheet metal.

Allan loved model trains and made a huge HO gage layout in his basement; it’s really something fascinating to see, along with the biggest collection of locomotives I‘d ever seen outside of a large hobby shop. All of the buildings for his train layout were meticulously hand-built to 1/76 scale and detailed by him, each one is a work of art, and there are many tens of them. Beside his train layout is an immaculately clean work bench where he rebuilt his motorcycle engines, other bike parts, and is just a general repair station for whatever needed fixing.

Allan was born in 1940 in Mount Sorrell in England. His father was a coach builder and also raced motorcycles at the Isle-of-Man TT races, which is where Allandevelopedhis talents and interest in motorcycles. He was a member of the ‘Ton Up’ clan and was also an avid football and rugby player.

Allan’s manner, talents and wisdom will now be carried by so many that he helped and taught over a very long time. All is not lost.

Allan is survived by his wife, Gillian, one daughter, four sons, and five grandchildren.

My constantly kind and generous friend, you will be missed by all who knew you.