Mervyn Rogers took over as Group Leader of Thames Valley from Geoff Keeble in 2011 and served the group very well for 7 years.

Mervyn's career was in aviation and worked for British Airways dealing with problems on such aircraft as Concorde, VC10 and Boing 747s as well as managing aircraft maintenance in many parts of the world.

This expertise stood him in very good stead for dealing with Lucas fuel injection systems, which he became expert at and helped many within the group to set their systems up.

He was always ready to assist any member with mechanical problems and did so on many occasions giving his time freely, he was always the first either under the bonnet or under the car!

Mervyn rebuilt two TR6s, the first one having been written off whist in his garage when a woman drove her car through his garage door at speed wrecking his car.

The group expanded during his time as leader and the number of trips abroad to various places increased including one year to his villa in Italy where a number of members were invited to stay. This proved to be a longer trip than expected. It was planned to drive to his place and then get a train that carried the cars for the majority of the return journey. However, two weeks before departure the Train Company went bust meaning that the TRs had about 900 miles more than expected!

Finding a new group leader proved longer than anticipated as he had planned for a five-year stint but agreed to a 6th year. Still no successor, so Mervyn agreed to the 7^thbut on the condition that this would definitely be the last year and thankfully Dave Goswell offered his services at the AGM to take over.

The picture shown was presented to Mervyn as part of the closing ceremony of the 2019 South East Drive It Day, organised by Thames Valley at Hollycombe Steam in the Country in recognition of his services to the Group. It was drawn by TR Action's very own Peter Entwhistle and features Mervyn driving his TR6 with a Concorde flying overhead.

Southern Groups' Drive It Day event in pictures.

The TR Register's Southern Groups united for a superb outing for the FBHVC's National Drive It Day. The initiative involves the many clubs that are a member of the Federation to organise or attend events that gets historic vehicles out on the road to raise awareness and interest amongst the general public for the importance of the freedom to use historic vehicles unhindered on the UKs roads.

Thames Valley group hosted TRs from Kennet Valley, Kent, London, Windsor Forest and South Downs Group in an impressive showing representing the entire spectrum of TR models. Furthermore, the club's own TS2 was present, visiting for the day from Didcot.

Hollycombe Steam in the Country was a superb venue as well, combining steam attractions with gardens and ample parking for all the TRs to be displayed. One of the more unusual attractions was a genuine replica of a steam fair with merry go rounds and a number of other Victorian steam ride favourites! The relentless tones of the out of key steam organ were an acquired taste however, but no less fun for it!