It is with great sadness that Geoff, Linda and their boys Nick and Richard have received the recent news that a longstanding dear friend of over 40 years, Roy Lythgoe formerly of Gornal Wood, Dudley, passed away on Monday 15th May, 2023, aged 83 years.

Geoff and Linda first came to know Roy when he entered the 1st Sandwell Historic Vehicle Parade back in 1978 when he entered his 1947 Morris "Series Z" GPO Telephone Van reg. no. JLC 528.  Roy continued to support all our events at Sandwell and soon became a firm friend who also worked and acted as Chief Marshall and Judged at our events we did across the country for many many years.    During this time he became friends with many of our exhibitors and was always on hand to help and offer restoration advice and anyone with vehicle problems at the show "Roy was the man to go to". 

Roy also spent hours driving a number of our miniature coaches at our events and was always keen to go in the arena and give children rides - He was known as "Uncle Roy the Kiddies Pal".  Roy and the miniature coaches must have been photographed thousands of times as all the parents seemed to want pictures of their children in the buses.  Our events were at Stately Homes and Parks from Sheffield in the North, many in the Midlands and down to Hatfield in Hertfordshire and Kent in the South.  On a number of occasions Roy came along with his caravan and family for the weekend shows.

When Roy decided to retire he moved away from the area to Northwich, Cheshire, where he went to live on a boat.  Roy had many good years on his boat but unfortunately he became ill and when he came out of hospital his eldest daughter Kerrie then took him to live with her on the Isle of Wight in the hope he would recuperate and get stronger before being able to go back to the life on his boat.  Sadly this did not happen.

Being an Engineer by trade Roy was a perfectionist when it came to restoring the vehicles he had over the years - the first being the GPO Telephones Van and then he restored a 4 wheel Berkley Sports Car, 1939 Triumph Motorcycle, several Vintage Caravans which he stayed in overnight on the shows we did further afield and the last vehicle he brought to our shows was a 1962 Rover P4 100 reg. no. 270 CUE which he towed the caravans with. Roy's GPO vehicle and the Rover were both featured on the front page of the Sandwell Historic Vehicle Show programmes in 1992 and in 2007.

I am sure Roy will be remembered by hundreds of exhibitors and by the rest of the "Transtar Team".

We have posted a few pictures below of Roy in action at our events.

Geoff, Linda, Nick and Richard