NOTICE OF DEATH - BRIAN LISTER 1926 - 2014

It is with regret that the BRDC has to announce the death of one of its longest-serving Associate Members Brian Lister who passed away on 16 December at the age of 88. Brian was elected to the Club in 1957 as an Associate (Patron) Member. This was the heyday of the green and yellow Listers with which Archie Scott-Brown became synonymous, first with MG, Bristol and Maserati engines before the Jaguar-engined car with which Archie carried all before him in 1957, winning 12 out of 14 races.

Brian and Archie were both Cambridge residents as was renowned engine tuner Don Moore through whom they met. Brian was grappling with a JAP-engined early Tojeiro known as The Asteroid in various East Anglian speed events and offered a drive to Archie who was immediately very much quicker. From that moment on Brian retired from driving and, through the family engineering company in Cambridge, built a succession of ever faster sports-racing cars for Archie to race.

The great tragedy of Brian’s life was Archie’s fatal accident at Spa-Francorchamps in May 1958 after which his enthusiasm for racing was never the same. By this time the Lister, with either a Jaguar or a Chevrolet engine, was attracting a good few customers and Brian continued to service their requirements for another 14 months or so. A Costin-bodied version for 1959 did not achieve the success of the earlier ‘Knobbly’ car and, when works driver Ivor Bueb died from injuries sustained in a Formula 2 race at Clermont-Ferrand, followed by Jean Behra’s fatal accident at Avus, the French Grand Prix star having been in discussion about becoming a works Lister driver, Brian decided to call it a day. There was a brief return with the Sunbeam Tiger Le Mans Coupes in 1964, and Brian retained his involvement in the sport as a committee member of both the BRSCC and BARC for some years. He also watched with wry amusement as more Lister-Jaguars and Lister-Chevrolets began to appear as the cars to have for historic sports car racing than ever emerged from his Cambridge workshops.

Along with Colin Chapman and John Cooper, Brian was one of the founding fathers of the British motor racing industry. To his wife Josephine and their daughter the BRDC extends its sincerest condolences.  Brian's funeral will take place at 12 noon, Thursday January 15th, at the West Chapel, Cambridge Crematorium, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0JJ