Obituary from Steve Hughes
As many of you will have heard by now the club has lost one of its greatest stalwarts and
hardest working officers when Steve Lister passed away, aged 71, on the 30th of October in
Ashgate Hospice, Chesterfield. He had been battling bravely with pancreatic cancer for the
last fifteen months during which he was undergoing multiple treatments. He and Ruth were
still able to attend the AGM in September, but his health deteriorated rapidly over the
following weeks.
I first got to know Steve in 1971 through the MTWC when I went to Chesterfield on industrial
placement as a student on an engineering sandwich course at Bradford university. As a very
new Morgan owner I was made to feel very welcome in the YND group, which was very
active in those days. Steve was only 16 then but had his first F type (KUV 706) as his
regular transport, and it was much preferred to the Lambretta scooter by attractive young
female passengers.
Over the years he has had quite a few Morgans and has also helped many people on their
way to getting their own Morgans on the road. He has restored a number of lovely cars and
then often let others have the use of them! His real passion was for 2-speeders with
Blackburne engines, of which he had a fair number over the years, along with the other
members of the Derbyshire Blackburne mafia! In recent years Steve and Mike Sythes
completed the superb reconstruction of the famous Freikaiserwagen hill climb special which
was rebuilt authentically to its pre-war condition with the very rare twin camshaft Blackburne
racing engine. Steve drove it for the last time at Shelsley Walsh in July. He also restored
the Morgan-GN special Salote to its proper condition with a KMC Blackburne in place of the
awful Harley Davidson engine that had been fitted to it in the USA. His last two Morgan
restorations were of the rare Blackburne engined Family Aero and the tricky restoration of
the Darmont Spécial (French Blackburne) which is now out on loan through the Borrow a
Classic scheme, as also is one of his Dellow trials cars.
Steve very much enjoyed competing in his Morgans and over the years he was seen out on
the circuits in the famous Horton-Jackson car OM 4000, the Lones replica Blackburne Aero
BF4818, (sometimes with the original Lones KMB Blackburne engine), his C type Super
Aero TH 399 which is now with Ian Hughes and his ever faithful late F Super LAT 555 which
was his first complete rebuild back in the mid 70’s. As well as Morgans, Steve was heavily
involved in competition with the Freikaiserwagen, his Coopers (v-twin and single), and his
Frazer Nash TT rep to name but a few. He and Ruth also competed in many of the MCC
long distance trials, initially with a model A Ford and then with a couple of Dellow trials cars
and latterly with a Reliant Scimitar SS1, specially adapted for those MCC events.
Steve served this club for many years in the important role of Registrar and at the same time
in the unenviable job of trophy co-ordinator. He could never be persuaded to stand for
Chairman and was indubitably the best Chairman we never had. Latterly he was elected as
a director where, with his co-directors he exercised oversight of the workings of the
Committee. He was the regular presenter of awards at both the club AGM partnered by
American member Chris Towner, both wearing the obligatory Hawaiian shirts – Chris’
prescription – and at the Sporting Section annual dinners. He was a regular and key
attendee at Central Committee meetings for many years and could always be relied upon for
sound guidance and advice – he didn’t speak often, but when he did, he was always worth
taking notice of. He also organised several very successful Night Trials in Derbyshire over
the years, an event that he felt epitomised the spirit and history of our wonderful club.
He was instrumental with Adrian Murray-Leslie in getting the Mogmatch scheme off the
ground some years ago and has helped Sam Savage and Roger Harrison in making
affordable restoration projects available to younger members to enable them to find their
entry into the Morgan world. He was also responsible for getting our club involved with the
embryonic Classic Car Loan Scheme ten or more years ago and has helped to get a good
number of new younger members on board, thanks to the generosity of members who have
placed their cars with the scheme, Andrew Morison being the first. In addition to that he has
also passed on several of his own projects to younger members, several of which are now
finished and on the road. It was entirely appropriate that at this year’s AGM he was
presented with the Esprit de Corps trophy which is the club’s most prestigious award for
services rendered to the club.
Steve had a very varied career after completing a degree in chemistry at Bradford Uni
followed by an MSc in management also at Bradford. After running their own family
wholesale drinks business in Sheffield for some years he went on to undertake management
consultancy roles in several large companies including Boddingtons brewery, the post of
Managing Editor at the Daily Express, Hansons Aggregates and latterly Champion Timber in
the South East. These meant that he spent a lot of time away from home, but he still made
time to fit in many competition events and to fulfil his significant club officer duties.
On a very personal note, Steve was Ian’s Godfather and he gave Ian a rather derelict Family
project for his 21st birthday to start him on his Morgan journey. Steve was hoping to be well
enough to be the best man at Ian and Steph’s wedding on the 8thNovember but sadly it was
not to be. We have lost a very dear family friend of the last 54 years.
No words can adequately express our heartfelt loss at this sad time, but we send our sincere
condolences to Ruth and her daughters Lauren and Bryony and the grandchildren. Steve
had a huge circle of friends and colleagues in the vintage world and at just 71 years of age
he has been taken from us far too soon and will be hugely missed by us all. RIP Steve
