Bob Currie
English writer
Robert Frank Currie (26 April 1918 – 25 July 1988) was an English motorcycling writer and road tester, who later became a magazine editor and book author. Mainly known for his UK journalism work with Motor Cycle, a UK weekly motorcycle magazine-turned-newspaper, then from 1981 as Editor of a new monthly magazine The Classic Motor Cycle, he retired in early 1988 suffering from an ongoing illness, after a full-time writing career starting in 1955, and later died of heart failure. He was born in Woolwich and died in Birmingham.
Currie was described in 1967 by his editor as "A prolific writer on all subjects". Writing in Currie's obituary, one former-collaborator remembered that many described him as "The Walking Encyclopaedia of Motor Cycling History", whilst his former understudy and editor-designate John Pearson described his death as "this country has lost its leading writer, historian and authority on veteran, vintage and classic British motorcycles".
Early life
With his younger brother, Ken, Currie spent his first few years with their father, an officer in the Royal Scots Greys, at various postings. Soon after leaving the army in 1924 and settling at Martley, Worcestershire, their sister Daphne was born and Captain Currie died. Life for his widow with three children was difficult, and young Bob was sent to live with an aunt in Dundee, later returning for his education at Worcester Royal Grammar School followed by work as a trainee engineer at Heenan & Froude in Worcester when he first started to ride motorcycles. He joined the Territorial Army, before conscription to the armed forces for the duration of World War II, in the RAOC (later known as REME) where he maintained and repaired tanks and acted as a despatch rider, progressing to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Post-war work and journalism
After the end of hostilities, Currie returned to work for Heenan & Froude, also becoming involved with the AA magazine, an occasional, newsletter-type publication mailed to members of the UK subscription-based motoring breakdown organisation, and as a contributor to the TT Special, a seasonal newspaper published by former TT rider Geoff Davison in June for the Isle of Man TT races, with occasional associated books.
“Bob Currie” enters the record as english writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Currie, English and writer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Bob Currie” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Currie, English and writer provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23688748. VIAF identifies the subject as 79373067. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1988, 1981 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bob Currie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.