Some months ago Mark Stevens wrote to provide some missing details about Bill. He also mentioned a John Collins whose name meant nothing to me. A few days ago I struggled up the climb to the A40 just west of Beaconsfield. I stopped to admire the view (well to be honest for a rest) and I was approached by a sprightly old gent out for a stroll. He congratulated me for not wearing a helmet and mentioned that he used to be a bike racer having come fifteenth in the Brighton-Glasgow in 1948. He had stopped racing early having spent two years in an "isolation hospital" suffering from TB. He had later worked at Gillots and knew Bill Philbrook well. He was John Collins-small world eh. Ray Green, Harrow, Middlesex
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