over two wheels Wild Frank Higgins

This story about Glenbrook hero Frank Higgins has a personal link.

When I was four years old, my mother was nurse/receptionist for well-known Waiuku doctors Sam Whiteside and Rae West. My mother and father and our family lived in the house at 96 Queen Street, where the doctors’ surgeries were in the front.

At the same time the Waiuku War Memorial Hall and movie theatre was being renovated and the building contractor was Guy Summerville Builders. The foreman of that company was young Frank Higgins who had served his building apprenticeship with Guy. The Summerville family were also long-term residents of Waiuku.

My nature was to be very inquisitive, and I started to frequent the building

It was the wind before the storm with the great 1930s depression gaining momentum when Glenbrook family Jim and Elsie Higgins gave birth to their second son Frank on 3 March 1930. The family lived and worked a farm in Glenbrook on a road that now bares the family name Higgins Road.

Jim and Elsie had an elder son Dillon (Lon) and in later years they were to welcome daughter Elise.

Young Frank attended Glenbrook School and later, Waiuku District High School. During these school years Frank gained a very strong interest in music. He took lessons from teacher Mr Donnolly and the two had a great rapport. It was evident that Frank had a personality that was infectious to all he touched.

Lon and Frank helped their mum and dad on the farm after school, and their interest in motorbikes had its foundation then.

“I think Lon aided and abetted Frank’s interest in bikes, to the point it became an obsession,” said Elise. “In fact, it wasn’t long until this obsession of bike riding and tinkering with the mechanical aspects turned in the desire to race.” At this time Arthur West and Bernie Fail, both long-time family friends who had a similar interest in bikes, allowed Frank to use their sheds to maintain his motorbikes and encouraged and helped Frank to eventually race his bike.

On his other interest front, Frank had a yearning to take his music further, but his father, Jim, thought that he would be better suited to a more traditional vocation and he was encouraged to take on a building apprenticeship being offered by Guy Summerville for his Waiuku building company.

The apprenticeship took the traditional five years, and Frank became a first-class builder and this held him in good stead when the opportunity to be promoted to project foreman after Guy was awarded the renovation and addition contract to the old Waiuku Town Hall which also housed the Lyceum Theatre.

Many locals were involved in this project, probably the biggest of its type ever carried out in Waiuku up until this time.

Graeme Williams recalls this time; his father Jack and he had the electrical wiring contract at the Hall project.

“Frank was a cool level-headed foreman who elbowed in with all his work- site. I would ride my tricycle down to the Victoria Avenue corner and on many occasions my hero Frank Higgins would give me timber offcuts that I would take home and build projects out of. There were no such access restrictions of construction site as we are familiar with in present day building projects. Frank became my good friend and hero, and this was even before I knew of his life interests, which within a short time would rob my hero of his life, 65 years ago last month.

I met with Frank’s sister Elise Jackson and her daughter Diane, who talked through Frank’s life with me. What I achieved from this meeting was to relive those close ties that Frank and I had back in the 1950s

— Bill Deed

mates on some of the heavy work at the hall. He was a person who interacted well and had high skill expectations of the work that has proven to have stood the test since the renovation in the mid 1950s,” said Graeme.

Elise said that Frank still loved his music. He learnt to play the fiddle and often used to join Noel Bulte and his group play at dances around the community. But it was his bike that continued his main interest. “He was always on his bike,” said Elise “he never had a car — when he needed to use a car, he would borrow mine. He had that type of a bubbly personality, and he would charm anyone”.

After he joined the Pukekohe Motorcycle Club, Frank entered many local motorbike races on the old air force base at Seagrove, Waiau Pa, Ardmore and Tarana ki. Of the 19 races he competed in the 1957-58 season he was placed in the top five at every event. His major success was being placed second in the NZ TT 350cc race.

“He had a goal of going overseas to race, and he trialled for the three-man New Zealand team, but alas, the cardinal sin prevailed — he ran out of gas in the final stage of the race and was excluded from selection,” Elise chuckled.

Not to be deterred, Frank “charmed” his mother and together they funded Frank to attend the overseas races on his own account.

The day came for the trip and Frank had bundled his AJS bike onto a plane at Whenuapai aerodrome for the beginning of his escapade. At this time there were no scheduled air services out of New Zealand. The start of this service came about when the British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines (BCPA) was registered in Australia. It was formed by the governments of Australia (50%), New Zealand (30%) and the United Kingdom (20%) to pursue trans-Pacific flights. BCPA was later taken over by Qantas. Qantas began flying some charters to New Zealand including Whenuapai with Lockheed Super Constellation four-engine planes in 1956. Fully scheduled services commenced in 1961.

Eventually his travel took him to where he wanted to go — the Isle of Man — to the world-famous motorbike TT races.

The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the island since its inaugural race in 1907. The course is a demanding 60 kilometre high-speed course which runs from Mt Snaefell (400m high) down to sea level at Douglas, with a seemingly never-ending series of bends, bumps, jumps, stone walls, manhole covers and telegraph poles which requires high levels of skill and concentration. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world as many competitors have died.

Frank was rearing to go. He met and became close friends with the manager of the English motorbike team Mick Vincent who became his mentor during his time on the island and at the Frank entered the race and was included in the 1958 Junior Class for up to 350cc motorcycles. There were 75 contestants in this grade. Frank achieved 28th place, and for his first international appearance was a credible achievement. He had completed the gruelling course in three hours and five minutes and his highest speed was recorded at 137 kph. The event was won by John Surtees who was to become one of the world’s best-known Formula One race car drivers.

Not to be daunted and with encouragement of his new friend Mick, Frank followed the British team to the next motorbike race on the international circuit of that year, the Internationales Schleizer Dreieckrennen motorcycle racing meeting. The bike racers were also lured with the well-known fact that the stakes of payout for winners in the East German event were much higher than on the Isle of Man. Frank had a week to prepare for his race at Schleiz, Thuringen.

Race day on Sunday 6 July 1958 dawned and preparation was finalised for the race. The course was again a public road course of almost eight kilometres and it included many normal road obstacles, which were features of these types of races.

Similar numbers of contestants lined up to take the start. Frank was again riding his 350cc AJS 7R bike and had been accredited with the fastest lap time over the circuit at practice. On the very first lap of the race at a fast corner called “Heinrichsruher Kurve” Frank tipped another bike in front of him, causing his bike to somersault several times, losing his helmet and he crashed heavily against a kilometre curb stone which was only covered with some strawbales. Frank fractured his skull and attempts to save his life were unsuccessful.

Back in New Zealand, it took some time for Frank’s family to learn of his death. When Constable Buckley from the Waiuku Police told the family, they were devastated, especially Frank’s mother Elsie who had encouraged Frank to enter these overseas events. What made it worse was the language difference which made it difficult for them to find out any information about what was going to, or what had happened with Frank’s body. Fortunately, his British friend Mick Vincent, who was also the chairman of an English motorcycle club took the lead and arranged for Frank’s body to be repatriated to England, and he was buried in the Sidcup Cemetery southeast London.

The memory and legacy of this man from Glenbrook, the achievements in his short 30 years of life continue to be remembered to this day.

On 20 August 2023, it will be 12 months since Glenbrook icon Clive Wymer passed away suddenly. About six months earlier, Clive had written the Breeze a letter, and one of the suggestions was to write a story to record the history of Frank Higgins, who Clive knew well. Although Clive was not to live to see the story, it is dedicated to the memory of Clive Henry Wymer (1943-2022).

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