STEVE HAGUE MEMORIAL SERVICE, 31st July 2015

Annoyingly, I’m on holiday that day, but will raise a glass.

Never been to AeroVenture before and it made me wish I’d gone there when Steve was around, it always seemed too far with other things always on to do but it was only anther hour after NAM, and I found the signs easy to follow while I didn’t come back empty handed after picking up a Javelin canopy for a contact – Steve would have approved.

A very impressive museum with an equally impressive main hangar of aircraft and ‘The Devil’s Work’ as Steve called choppers, with lots of other nice displays and good to see the cabinets Bill picked up from my family in the early norties which have been put to good use in show-casing some of the fine smaller exhibits.

A lovely sunny day and I got there well before time, seeing Andre Tempest and family, Bill Fern and Naylan Moore and lots of other people, met some other good contacts too like the museum’s Alan Beattie of Yorkshire Helicopter Preservation Group. Also saw one of Steve’s brothers but thought it best not to talk to him.

Some very nice speeches were made by Bill Fern and Andre Tempest along with two others and a Lifetime Achievement Award via the Transport Trust in recognition of services to aviation made in 2014 was presented belatedly to Bill for Steve which will go with Steve’s Merlin engine that AeroV have purchased from Steve’s brothers. The museum didn’t need another one but thought it would make a nice memorial to a true diehard – and he did die hard thanks to his stubbornness that kept him with us for enough time for him to be talked about for many years to come.

Before the fine buffet that followed the service one of the speakers mentioned that Steve’s father was a marine and they moved 7 times when he was a kid, I think Steve’s illness started at 19 when he first got Crohm’s Disease, after which it was a life-long battle with many other complications after that; he didn’t just battle his illness but other obstacles which included bureaucracy, inadequates in government, local government, DHSS and lousy GP’s who should be ashamed of themselves – lets hope they get refused a referral if they ever have umpteen things wrong with them in their own busy lives and are told that its down to budget.

Over 150 people attended on the day and there were at least four representatives from the Aeroplane Collection/Northern Aircraft Preservation Society at Hooton Park alone, along with other BAPC people and those involved in Lusty Lindy, the museum and other museums like East Midlands, etc. In 28 years Steve missed only 2 meeting so the third speaker had mentioned, quite a feat when dealing with his health issues and fitting so many other things aviation-reated into his annual schedule, while cursing also his motoring issues!

Don’t rest easy Steve, because after the relatively short span mankind gets in general I can’t see quite why anyone would want to rest easy if there are other things to do if we should find there IS another stage to move onto – so keep moving on and doing things till the big meet-up at the celestial bar, and then as ever, you can flag us in and explain to us how it all works.