Jim Henry has followed speedway since 1961 when he became hooked
at Old Meadowbank in Edinburgh. He has followed the Monarchs and
now watches their activities at Armadale.
He joined the track staff at Powderhall in 1977 and in 1989 was
asked to become Clerk of the Course. Jim served at
Powderhall, Glasgow, Armadale and Linlithgow and did odd cover
meetings at Berwick and Glasgow Ashfield over a 25 year period.
The impending Diamond Jubilee saw Jim take an interest in speedway
history and become involved in the celebrations in Scotland. This
has grown to be a bit of a passion over the years since then. He
joined the then Veteran Speedway Riders Association and helped set
up the Scottish Committee. He has served as secretary to the
organisation to date.
With Graham Fraser as co-editor, Jim was involved in producing The
Speedway Researcher magazine which flourished for 16 years. The
Speedway Researcher web site was a spin off and this is an ever
growing source of information about speedway meetings staged in
the UK. Jim acknowledges he has had a lot of help over the years
and hopefully has helped folks looking for speedway information.
He is quite chuffed at the number of acknowledgements he has
gathered in various speedway books over the years.
With co-author Ian Moultray Jim was involved in writing A History
of Edinburgh Speedway Part 1 The Marine Gardens Years and Speedway
in Scotland. On his own Jim wrote Glasgow's Speedways : The Pre
War Years which was published by Robert Bamford.
A retired town planner Jim has two sons, four grandchildren and a
very understanding wife who puts up with his speedway activities.
Jim hopes the scans he has supplied to John which have been placed
on The Defunct Speedway website will be of great interest and
maybe be an inspiration for future speedway historians.
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