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[Ray Bell]

An enthusiast on many fronts, Bryan John Nokes lost his long battle with cancer a couple of days ago, just short of his 75th birthday.

Normally I would enter this in the Mentioned in Passing thread, but his activities were so widespread I reckoned on this notification of his passing being more visible to some who might have known him or known of him in a separate thread.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario when his father was stationed there in World War 2, Bryan's family moved back to the UK when he was two and he spent most of his young life in Bristol.

He was apprenticed in the British Merchant Navy at fifteen and travelled the world, but somewhere or other he caught the motor sporting bug and during the sixties he was racing in Ireland.

I don't have any detail other than that he raced a Mini there, while he also went rallying there. And he continued rallying after moving to Australia in 1969 as one of what we term 'Ten Pound Poms', settling for a while in Queensland (where he again went rallying and was fairly well-known in racing circles), then on to Sydney for several years before finally settling in Melbourne.

He worked in the audio-visual industry, but he was closely associated with rallying once again. He assisted both with official and with team organisation, working at times with John Large and Ross Dunkerton.

In December, 1984, he had the good fortune to marry the woman who would accompany him on the rest of his journey through life, Jenny. Together they brought two sons into the world, Jonathon and Sam.

With the boys in their late twenties, the cancer which ultimately took Bryan's life made itself known and for the past four years it has been an everpresent gloom in the lives of the whole family.

Bryan's enthusiasm for racing, however, remained undaunted. He eagerly pursued television coverage of racing, and when there was none he went to You Tube to find more to help fill the hours until his final decline.

To Jenny, Sam and Jonathon I offer my sincere condolences.

I also hope someone here might be able to throw a little light on his racing and rallying career, particularly in Ireland.