Mick Bonwick 20th August 1948 – 31st July 2021
Attending Mick’s funeral on the 19th of August 2021 brought back many happy memories of Mick and the times we were both involved in Missenden Abbey Railway Modelling Courses.
Mick came to Missenden Abbey as a student to learn the art of weathering from Tim Shackleton. Mick was a quick learner and soon was helping his mentor with demonstrations of airbrush cleaning and Weathering in general. So Mick was the obvious replacement for Tim when he retired and he soon became an excellent tutor with the result that classes grew rapidly. Mick was always very well prepared with equipment, books, paint and brushes so all his attendees could finish their projects.
When I discovered that his military and industrial background made him an expert in spreadsheets and data bases, I invited him to join the management team. Mick took on this task and he handled the emailing list expertly, maintaining our database, providing me with data about who had attended what course and sending the our regular Newsletters.
When I retired in 2019, Mick took over the team from me and I felt very comfortable that the management of Missenden Abbey Railway Modelling Courses was in a very safe pair of hands. I was not disappointed. Mick was a very dependable person who take on a task and execute it perfectly without any fuss – you could always rely on Mick. He soon realised that Covid crisis made the running of the courses at Missenden Abbey impossible so with great innovation he introduced online courses that were very successful. It is so sad that we will not see him again when courses start (hopefully) in the autumn of 2021. He will be greatly missed by all of us.
Mick weathered several of my engines and when they are running on my layout they will bring back fond memories of the times we spent together. They are a fitting memorial to a great modeller and good friend.
Christopher Langdon
Course Organiser 1996-2019
Picture shows Mick in the Walled Garden at Missenden Abbey with the Deltic Locomotive and looking very happy with his handiwork done during the Railway Modellers Summer Retreat.
