Bob Rowles

I live in Addingham with my wife, Betty, and a ginger cat, Charlie. I have two married sons who live well away from us.

I was introduced to Advanced Driving when I was taught to drive by a Bristol traffic cop. He asked me to study a type-written document titled The System of Car Control as used by the Metropolitan Police. I recognised it again when I bought a copy of Roadcraft.

I didn’t join IAM until 1983 when I went to an event organised by the Huddersfield group. Having passed the Advanced Driving Test, I was invited to become an observer. I was told that having just passed the Advanced Driving Test, I knew what the examiner wanted. Observer training was much simpler in those days!

When the Dewsbury & Batley group was formed I transferred from Huddersfield and was given the membership number “13” in the new group. This might explain some of the things that have happened since then. I served on the Dewsbury committee as member and chairman until I moved to Addingham in 1996 and joined Skipton & Craven.

I intended be an ordinary member and observer in Skipton but someone told them about my previous experience and I was coerced into joining the committee. Eventually I became chairman.

When a vacancy occurred on IAM’s National Groups Committee, I persuaded the Skipton Committee to nominate me for the position. This gave me a seat on the IAM Council to represent the North of England and North Wales. I had to resign from the group committee although I continued to observe.

After two and a half years, the National Groups Committee was dissolved which meant that I no longer sat on the IAM Council and I went back to the Skipton committee. My successor as group chairman promptly resigned and told me that the chair was mine again.

I remained as group chairman until the Skipton Chief Observer resigned. I was appointed as Chief Observer in his place and gave up the chair. When the Skipton committee felt that the group was no longer viable, the membership was transferred to MYAM. At this point I joined the MYAM committee and I continue to look after the observers in the former Skipton & Craven area.