Kate Spencer
(1939-2018)
Stalwart lady veteran of bicycle and leisure
publishing Kate Spencer died at the Marie
Curie hospice in Elswick, Newcastle upon
Tyne on Saturday, July 7. The locality is
recognised as base of the 19th century
Elswick Bicycle Company absorbed in 1910
into the Barton on Humberside business,
later a part of the Tandem Group.
Kate had become ill with sepsis in February, then
after hospital and home care treatment she was
admitted as patient of the Mary Curie hospice charity
two weeks ago. Seemingly recovering, alert, and
happy there was a sudden relapse and she passed away
peacefully in her sleep on Saturday evening. At the end
of this month Kate Spencer would have reached her
79th birthday.
Forty years ago Kate Spencer and her father James
Robinson founded the KSA Partnership business in the
north east of England to distribute and publish books
and guides for outdoor living,
leisure travel, bicycling and
hiking. As a young mother,
writing about cycling
and camping she was
to become lynchpin
as secretary and
officer of the
communicators
and journalists
group she helped
found, the UK
organisation OWG
now known as the
Outdoor Writers’ & Photographers’ Guild.
Kate Spencer travelled Europe extensively, often
based in a touring caravan with her journalist husband
Peter Lumley to attend trade Fairs and research topics
and companies. She was a regular visitor to both
Eurobike and OutDoor in Freidrichshafen, earlier it was
the IFMA in Cologne, also attending EICMA in Milan
and Munich for the ISPO. She will be recognised as the
lead person behind the magazine tradeandindustry,
now 38 years into its publication run after opening as
the monthly Bicycle Trade Times. Her work for the first
dozen or so years was publishing consumer magazines
and annuals for cycling and outdoors, including the
print magazines Cycling World, Bicycle Times and
Footloose.
Afflicted with breast cancer over 22 years ago Kate
defied that earlier prognosis, she then battled with
secondary BC four years ago and after her first spell at
Marie Curie she always tells their care saved her life.
In 2017 she celebrated her company’s 40th year with
a 90-day caravan tour around the British mainland,
demonstrating you can effectively operate a business
from an office on the move! In February of this year,
she was a guest at the 65th year celebrations of the
Maldon & District Cycling Club, the Essex cl ub founded
in 1953 by her husband where the British team member
Alex Dowsett of Katusha Alpecin pro team joined as a
thirteen year old.
When you met her, Kate Spencer always carried a
caring, sharing manner, and was always enthusiastic in
the engagement.
Kate Spencer, is survived by her daughter, three
sons and husband. There are also grandchildren and a
great grand daughter.
Kate Spencer: Lynchpin of the Guild
Roly Smith remembers the vital role Kate played in the OWPG
Kate Spencer was the person who
persuaded me to join the Outdoor
Writers’ Guild, as it was known then. I was
attending the annual Camping and Outdoor Leisure
(COLA) Show at Harrogate in 1983 with photographer
friend Mike Williams and our new book Wildest Britain,
hoping to do a bit of what I believe is now known as
‘networking.’
“You should be a member of the Guild,” enthused
secretary Kate with that ever-present, warm and
friendly smile. “We’re all outdoor people and you’ll
make lots of contacts.” Little did I realise then
how right she was, and how that meeting would so
substantially change my life.
Just three years before, Kate had been a founder
member of the Guild at that legendary meeting of six
like-minded outdoor professionals in the bar of The
George Hotel in Harrogate. And at the time I first met
her, Kate Spencer was undoubtedly the one who held
the Guild together. In so many ways in those days, she
was the Outdoor Writers’ Guild.
Fellow founder and life member Tom Waghorn told
me: “Kate was someone very special. She was a lovely
lady and a real pillar of the Guild. It simply would not
have existed without her hard work and dedication.”
Later, of course, and largely again because of Kate’s
persuasive skills, I became chairman for 13 years
and was later president for a similar length of time.
Kate was always supportive and encouraging in the
ways we strived to make the Guild into the respected
professional body it is today.
Kate’s courage and determination in fighting the
breast cancer that struck her an astonishing 22 years
ago was nothing short of amazing. Despite several
terminal prognoses, she just never gave in. This
was despite several set-backs with treatments and
operations, and she never, ever complained about her
dreadful illness. She just got on with life.
Continued >
autumn 2018 | Outdoor focus 9