Steve Hague

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.

The first hymn set to the Dambusters music was inspired. Splendid turnout and Captain Crapweather finally got his Blue Skies.

Fly on dear boy..

John

Indeed it was a great send off and it was good to chat with several forumites who were in attendance to remember Steve.

Great send off for Steve at Aeroventure today…tributes and a Merlin engine dedicated to his memory…..Blue Skies …..

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

Memorial Service for Steve Hague

Recently sent out by the BAPC. Who is going?

You are invited to a Memorial Service to celebrate the life of

Steve Hague, Chairman BAPC 2003-2015

Friday 31st July 2015, 14.00 – 15.00 at Aeroventure Museum

Followed by a buffet at the Museum

South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum Airbourne Road Doncaster DN4 7NW

All members of your organisation are invited to attend.

Please give this the widest possible circulation

RSVP [email]secretarybapc@btconnect.com[/email] before 28th July

STEVE AT WHITTICK AEROMART 2004

Well I’ve found the pic but unsure if it will go up, Bruce can you do the honours if it fails plz and I’ll send on to you.

This was taken as above and shortly after his appointment as BAPC Chairman I think. To his utter amazement someone with a nearly complete Venom panel – night fighter version I think – came along and I think Naylan spotted it and tapped him on the shoulder. Like one of those Angling Times images of a happy person with a Crucian Carp of a certain poundage. Here goes for upload anyway…

Minutes later.

OK what have I done wrong, I’ve loaded it into a new-style file folder of past posts, and clicked ‘upload’, but nothing’s happened.. Hold on, will try again, have to click ‘Insert Inline’ I believe- my, its changed a but since I last had space to post…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]237772[/ATTACH]

I’m very sad to hear of Steve’s untimely death. I knew him through the scale modelling world. He was always very helpful with that wonderful Yorkshire dour humor. One of the first times I introduced Clare to helping me behind my trade stand was at Aero Venture and the concrete hangar floor was freezing to stand in one place. Clare commented on this, unknowingly within ear shot of Steve. A short time later he turned up with a piece of carpet for her to stand on, saying “I’ve brought the carpet Madam ordered”. As someone else said “Grey skies” Steve, it’s a little more in keeping.

John

Some will know what I mean when I say it is a shame his plan involving a PZ.IV never came to pass…

Garry I share your disgust on how he was treated. It appeared almost like they gave up on him because he was on his own. Andre Tempest visited him a lot near the end and was amazed by the apparent lack of concern by some. Andre has posted a tribute on the Victor blog and has requested I post it on here.

Steve Hague 1961-2015

The Victor team and myself lost a great friend and personality this week when Steve sadly passed away after more or less a lifetime of illness.

Steve was taken ill at the age of 16 as he was about to join the RAF with Crones Disease. Consequently he wasn’t able to join the RAF and worked for a time at The British Library, Thorp Arch, Yorkshire. He also held a number of part time jobs.

Due to the severity of his illness he was unable to hold down permanent work and spent many, many months in hospital over the years. Basically being unfit for work he joined the Yorkshire Air Museum in its infant days as a volunteer and when he was well (which wasn’t often) spent many trips ‘trudging’ hillsides in the Yorkshire Dales helping to locate and recover parts for the then intended Handley Page Halifax Bomber recreation. Trips to remote Scottish islands also bore Halifax parts including the centre fuselage that was ultimately used in the Halifax at Elvington.

Steve also joined the Mosquito restoration project owned by Tony and Val Agar, along with Lee Norgate, Phil and Judy Pulleyn and others they were able to have a more or less complete Mosquito airframe rolled out in 1991. The Night Fighter Preservation Team, as they were then known had recreated an authentic De Havilland Mosquito!

Steve was able to learn to fly and earned the nickname ‘Captain Crapweather’ due to seemingly bad weather on a number of his flying lessons. He was also heavily involved with the Air Training Corps as a Civilian Instructor for many years and up to his untimely death.

I first met Steve just after my Father and I had bought the Victor, at first I found him difficult to get on with and to be honest if you didn’t ‘click’ on his wavelength then you never would have got on with him. To stay Steve was unusual is not an insult, he was just different in so many ways. He knew his subject very well and was a fountain of knowledge. He was also the best ‘scrounger’ in the business. The saying “Cheap is good, free is better” was one of his unique sayings. He was also a damn good friend to myself and many others. We (The team) also spent many happy weekends and trips away at various Wartime events dressed as Second World War airmen, we took it seriously, very seriously if a pub was located nearby!!

Steve did a lot for the Yorkshire Air Museum, He was involved with the acquisition of the Canberra (YAM’s first Jet) He also built the replica Hurricane from a kit and was a big part in obtaining the Harrier GR3 for the museum. He joined in with the Victor Team from more or less day 1 and was extremely good at ‘finding’ things that were needed for the Victor. He also masterminded the first Victor tail braking parachute packing ‘party’ and many more after.

In 2002 he left YAM for a new challenge helping to get the newly formed South Yorkshire Air Museum in Doncaster off the ground. He did this with ‘gusto’ and built up a successful retail shop and a Model Club on the site, as well as holding Aviation lectures with a number of well known aviation personalities. For quite a number of years Steve was involved with the British Aviation Preservation Council (BAPC) and latterly for a number of years the Chairman. He was also a Trustee of the South Yorkshire Air Museum and latterly the Chairman of Trustees.

On his days off for well over 10 years Steve willingly assisted me in my classic car business and he became very knowledgeable and a great help to me.

In 2014 it became alarmingly obvious that Steve wasn’t well. We knew he was always ill in some way but he was obviously struggling to walk and was clearly unwell. 8 weeks ago he was admitted to St James’ Hospital Leeds and he was diagnosed with varying complaints. He was bed-ridden for the last 7 weeks of his life and we visited him many times in the last few weeks. He just grew weaker and he finally faded away at 8.15am Thursday 21st May.

Its apt to end here with one of Steve’s legendary quotes; “No good will come of it!”

Lest We Forget

The worry is, if this is how the 5th(?) richest nation in the world deals with its obviously deserving multiple illness cases then I can’t for the life of me (and Steve’s now sadly gone) see, how a government can even think of delivering a 7-day service, when the health service failed in Steve’s case so consistently, with convenient brush-offs via inadequate anti-biotic get-outs when he should have been referred INSTANTLY to a specialist long ago. Shame on his GP’s and their precious budgets that are not doled out to clearly deserving cases. This is one of the reasons we pay taxes to give doctors a living.

Thanks Gary. Like many of his friends, I had no idea how bad it had got.

Steve Pt.2

LUDDITUS EXAMPLE
“I am not opening this until I know what is in it – I don’t want any nasty viruses humping into my computer.”
*
TREATMENT
Here are some of the exchanges prior to his admission, again, for someone not just so ill but frustrated at the vagaries of receiving proper and prompt care, his sense of humour is an example of how I guess we’d all like to be in such a situation. “Yeh, I’m crap. So what? Now where’s my next model coming from?”
*
9th Jan
I am really rather unwell at the moment, myself. I have finally got a diagnosis for the excruciating pain in my left foot – after one month and having been told that it isn’t gout… I have gout! I have also got cellulitis in my right leg, which is equally agonising. If you add this to a galloping kidney infection and a flare up of my Crohn’s disease, plus a load of other hassles, I am just about ready for the knackers yard.
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14 Feb
As you know, I haven’t been very well for a while and I have only just managed to persuade the doctors that there really is something amiss. Having splitting headaches, flu-like fevers, a high temperature and all the other symptoms for six weeks isn’t normal, apparently…
*
So, this morning (Saturday) I am supposed to present myself to the medics at St James’ hospital for a full MOT, involving a head CT scan, abdominal scan, all kinds of blood and other tests to find out what the problem is – about bloody time! I was told that they might be looking for an abscess, or some other kind of nastiness. If I have got some thing in my head, other than the usual straw & newspaper, it would explain a lot, including why I nearly flaked out in a motorway service station on Thursday night!
*
There’s nothing to worry about at this stage – it could be trapped wind (!) I will just be glad to get a hint at what the problem is. I don’t know how long they expect to keep me, but I will be trying to escape as soon as possible. If I get my way, I shall be going to the Huddersfield Model Show on Sunday, even if I have to go back in on Monday morning. They might not even keep me overnight (I hope) I just have to wait and see what they come up with.
*
I can’t guarantee being able to get access to the internet until I manage to tunnel out, so there’s not much point in attempting to contact me that way, until I break free. If they keep me for any length of time I will need supplies bringing in – so that I can build a glider… I could have done with a bit more notice of this, not least because I haven’t got any pyjamas, which might cause a bit of stir… No good will come of it!
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26 Feb
Feeling as bad as ever and still no joy from the doctors. I went there last Friday and came away with the promise of being set up with an urgent appointment to see a man about some skin cancer. I am not the slightest bit worried about it – it either is or it isn’t and I have had such problems before. What annoys me is that they get ****** idiots to produce the information letter, which isn’t really in English. See the scan and decide how one is supposed to wait urgently…? You can wait patiently; you can wait impatiently – you can’t wait urgently.
*
My 9 hr stay in hospital last week produced no specific results other than boredom and a £15.00 taxi fare. No surprises that they didn’t find much, other than I don’t feel very well and have a high temperature, when they didn’t do all of the tests that they said that they were going to do and sent me home none the wiser, is it?
Don’t know if I can be bothered to go to Newark when I feel so ill. I am not really in need of anything and, unless Andy is interested in going I might just give it a miss – again. This lurgy is sucking the life out of me – along with some real ********* that are having a similar effect.
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3 Mar
By this time Steve was struggling to walk very far and I wondered how he was going to do basic things like shop, and could he use public transport etc.
*
The mechanic sounds like he doesn’t want to do the work. As far as I am concerned, the numbers still add up to less than buying a reasonable replacement, which could turn out to be a problem and just as bad, in 12 months. The steering rack, rear suspension arm, exhaust and back brakes all need sorting. In addition, the sump is rotten and starting to leak and the engine emissions are proving difficult to tame.
*
It is likely to go to the top side of £1000, but that is still cheaper than picking up a second-hand Focus, with no real guarantees that it is any good. Talk about a rock & a hard place… Better the Devil you know…?
*
Going anywhere by Public Transport is not really an option. It’s O.K for long distance journeys but, if you have luggage for an overnight stay or for a presentation, it would be impossible for me to carry it, especially in my knackered state. I went to a meeting in London, a couple of weeks ago, and that meant travelling down on the Wednesday evening and staying somewhere near Hampstead to avoid the congestion charge. We used the tube to get across town and the walk between stations nearly killed me! It was bitterly cold and that affected my breathing.
*
Even going to Leeds on a bus would damned hard work and incredibly time consuming. The bus station in Leeds is anything up a mile and half from most of the places that would want to go. Two of the hospitals that I have to visit are a two bus journey, each way, with a walk between stops. Shopping is easy enough – I am only 25 yards from the Supermarket.
*
I am being steadily ground down by this illness. It has been going on since before Christmas and there is no sign of improvement. My G.P’s don’t give a **** and I am going to have to get myself an appointment with the Consultant in the Urology Department, because they won’t do anything. If he finds something significant, that the G.P has ignored, the **** is going to hit the fan.
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18 Mar
I felt things were looking bad and more importantly I didn’t know that it was definitely cancer on Steve’s scalp, asking what was happening with the specialist? If the doctors(GP’s) were disinterested couldn’t he just demand a specialist/consultant meeting from the GP?
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19 Mar
It is getting to the point where I just don’t want to bother with the ****** G.P. It is soul destroying and a complete waste of time and energy to try and get anywhere with them. This is probably what they want, of course – to p*** me off so that I leave them alone. It’s a much easier life for them if they don’t have to deal with patients.
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Steve finally saw some people who bothered to look at all of his problems and things looked brighter on the diagnosis and treatment side at last.
*
20 Mar
My trip to the hospital today was very productive – we didn’t discuss my chest problem, but **** listened to the list of symptoms and ailments that I have and has already decided that I am being ****** about – he has asked for a reference to the consultant urologist.
He has also ordered up some tests to check for other things including, would you believe, tuberculosis! When I was describing the ********* about by the G.P., especially over the kidney/urine problem, he said “Well, it’s a no brainer – you should have been referred to the urology department ages ago” – Eureka! Someone that actually has a brain and knows his trade.
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CARRY ON
When Steve realised he was stuck at home and finally needed help to get to hospital he said it took two hours just to crawl to the stop of the stairs to sit upright so that he could begin to dress himself, it took more hours by the time the ambulance came. It was just so cruel that his flared-up disc problem (yet another ailment) meant he could’t walk while in hospital.
*
This was a man who gave new meaning to the phrase “Carry on regardless” and until I meet him again I hope if I have just a fraction of his spirit, wit, drive, determination, intelligence and humour, it won’t be a bad thing. Will be looking out for you regardless at the boots Steve, and I’ll still see you there in the way I still remember you.

STEVE PT.1

Sorry if its a bit long but I knew him for a long time and Part 2 breaks it up a bit with a sum up.

Yes Bruce has captured a lot of what made Steve who he was along with other contributions – such a Wickedly Dry Yorkshire Wit that I could probably design a beer label for it. I met him sometime in the early 90’s and in the last year in particular we mailed each other regularly as I followed his decline and frustration at GP’s. I’ve put some of it down here in Pt.2 as aside from the trials he was suffering not just from his ailments but the lack of concern from GP’s (including refused referrals that he felt were purely down to cost) it also shows that despite it all, his humour was still shining through.
*
He was continually scathing of GP’s in his final year and their lack of logic in dealing effectively with his case besides the referral issue, along with unthinking hospital lapses in anticipating when he would need supplies of drugs that he had not been told were not available at specific times. In the end I told him to be a bit more forceful, horrified after he told me of two evenings when one GP said while standing in the doorway (after he had waited a considerable time) that he hoped it wouldn’t take too long as he had other things on, while another almost made him say ‘You just want to get home and have dinner don’t you, palming me off with more ineffective antibiotics that I don’t need’.
*
Towards the end I told him that he had to give up BAPC and just stay with AeroVenture for his health – as you will see further on, the travelling alone was wearing him down as he couldn’t do long distances and careful planing was needed – especially when his car started giving similar terminal problems and he had to start using public transport.
*
Time will only confirm more markedly what an indispensable person he was to BAPC, and to people also. He threw himself into many things and seemed never happier than wandering around aeroboots dispensing updates, Yorkshire wit and painfully accurate impersonations of people who had raised his ire including one source who had treated him disgracefully with mean and ungrateful machinations. One in particular was my personal favourite and he seemed to find his forte at AV, working in the shop there while dealing with his BAPC duties and everything else that life threw in the way of his health. It was selfish of me perhaps, that despite everything I knew of his health along with*his spiralling condition at hospital, I still expected him to pull through.
*
There is a GR3 at Elvington that his initiative fostered along with later bits added, and he has made a mark that will be remembered in preservation. He was also instrumental in saving the former LAHC Vulcan CDT after the VTTST proved unwilling to pick the item up themselves and the first sale fell through. After I mentioned this to him he swung into action with BAPC contacts and between them and VTTST we worked to make pick up and delivery arrangements ourselves along with payments, ensuring that it was saved and passed on.
*
I was told originally by my original VTTST contact at Finningley that 6 months would be needed to build a stand for the item (the oldest piece of Vulcan built, made before the prototype flew) but it had to go from its Surrey location fast, and AeroVenture kindly took it on re temporary storage. Much time later it was still there however and I’m not sure if it is in fact still there today. Many other people will know something of Steve’s positive effects on preservation too I’m sure.
*
He was pleased to get some Harrier cockpit parts from me around 5 years ago at knockdown price and told me he had secreted them away in his loft for a future project while a BAe manual followed later, he was very pleased though when around 3 years ago I bought a cache of German 72nd scale bombers (yes, they’re in the loft but they were just so nice). Beautifully painted by a deceased model maker that had left his collection with NAM to raise some funds, I duly presented him with a favourite of his which was a FW189? (the one with the cockpit on one wing and the engine on the other), but on mailing him shots of the other models I was surprised at his knowledge of them all – he had specialist Luftwaffe books also along with other reference and could always be relied on to sort an aviation query or ID a plane which was suspect.

I only met Steve once, at a BAPC meeting held at the City of Norwich Aviation Museum back in the 90s, but that memory has stayed with me. My condolences to his family and friends.

I bet he’s up there now laughing at the irony that these comments are appearing on “the FlyPast Forum” Whenever at a BAPC meeting I might mention reading something on “the FlyPast Forum” he gave the impression I had been consorting with the Devil – he played the Luddite part for all it was worth.

That made me laugh, I heard similar from him! But I suspect the ‘Luddite’ was a carefully crafted image.

I knew Steve through modelling, and whilst I only met him a few times, we corresponded through e-mail on and off for several years. He was always one to find the odd or obscure part or photograph, especially related to Harriers.

He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Will miss the old bu**er 😀

I bet he’s up there now laughing at the irony that these comments are appearing on “the FlyPast Forum” Whenever at a BAPC meeting I might mention reading something on “the FlyPast Forum” he gave the impression I had been consorting with the Devil – he played the Luddite part for all it was worth.

He exercised his sense of humour regularly and I don’t think I ever saw him without a suit on!

RIP Steve.

Roger Smith.

What a thoroughly nice chap, and a big blow to hear this news.

No airs and graces, straight talking, polite and, as remarked upon by others, that unique wit and humour. I liked Steve a lot and he had no qualms about talking to the likes of me!

That he became, and succeeded, as chair of the BAPC was, I thought at first, odd. However, any doubts were soon dispelled and I believe he is the best chairman they have ever had, mainly for the reasons stated above.

He’ll be hard to replace and sorely missed.

RIP Steve.

Mike Davey.

Steve – ‘orchestrating’ the members at a BAPC Meeting at the De Havilland Aircraft Museum on 19th May 2007.

Hi Steve, how are you?

‘Crap thanks..’