British Division Captain 1973-1976, International Historian 2006-2011 and Ellen Pfeiffer Award recipient in 2020
This is the nomination that was submitted by WIMA GB:
Sheila Whittingham has been a member of WIMA GB since 1967 and has been active in her support of WIMA throughout this time. She even met her husband Eddie through WIMA! In 1973 she took over from Maureen Willis as captain of the GB division – at this time the captain did everything: badges, membership, organising rallies as well as the magazine, as there was no committee then. The news sheet from the USA was becoming increasingly erratic, so Sheila found an old spirit duplicator and started sending WIMA News out as a monthly publication. Membership rose from 50 to 250 after Bike Magazine published an article on WIMA. Sheila continued as editor of the newsletter for many years.
Sheila has been riding since she was about 11 years old and got her first road bike at 16 – a BSA Bantam. She’s owned and ridden a total of 42(!) motorcycles including a Kawasaki trail bike, a Moto Guzzi, a Buell, a Harley and possibly her favourite: a 1951 Velocette Mac 350 touring bike. She has attended numerous WIMA and other non-WIMA rallies at home and abroad, and has passengered in a trials outfit, and done hill climbs. Sheila still rides all through the winter in snowy Wales at the age of 72.
Sheila was the first WIMA national then international historian for around 15 years. During this time, she collected and stored a mass of material including WIMA newsletters and photo albums from 1965 onwards. From this she produced a terrific CD of archive photos called ‘WIMA – 52 years of fun from 1950 to 2002’. Sheila is proving invaluable in helping in providing information about the early years of WIMA International for the update of the WIMA history. We believe she is long overdue recognition for her more than 50 years of contribution to WIMA and truly deserves the Ellen Pfeiffer award.
