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Photo courtesy of Hawick Museum | |
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The Glasgow Herald of 1 September 1937 reported on the idea of a memorial to Jimmie Guthrie. “The proposal is that a bronze statuette should be erected in some prominent place in Hawick, and that a bed should be endowed in Hawick Cottage Hospital primarily for the use of injured motor cyclists and to be known as the Jimmy (sic) Guthrie bed.”
That statue, by Galashiels sculptor Thomas Clapperton, was erected in 1939 and sits in Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick just next to the town's museum, which features a splendid exhibition about Guthrie. Curator Richard White recalls that around 500 people visited the Guthrie room on its opening day, and every year bikers from around Europe come to pay their respects to one of the sport's legendary figures. Jimmie's son, also called Jimmie, who won the 1967 Isle of Man TT and now lives in South Africa, has donated many of his father's trophies to the collection.
There are other memorials to Jimmie Guthrie – the “Guthrie Stone” at the Sachsenring where he died, and another at the roadside spot, The Cutting, where he retired in his last Senior TT.
