Widow keeps husband’s legacy alive through motorcycle funeral …

A woman from Leicestershire is driving her late husband's memory forward through their joint love of motorbikes. Reverend Paul Sinclair and his wife Marian co-founded Motorcycling Funerals LTD, based in Measham, which she says is Britain's first motorbike funeral service.

Reverend Paul was a local pastor who had a passion for two communities - his congregation, and bikers - which inspired him to start the company. Paul passed away in 2019, but four years on Marian continues to make it her mission to continue his legacy.

Marian said: "We serve families nationally by providing a distinguished motorbike and a sidecar hearse for a dignified final journey and a memorable ride for family and friends of the deceased."

The idea to start up the company started in 2001 after the couple had a motorcycling accident. She said: “A few months after getting engaged, we both got into a motorbike accident, which left him out of action and in hospital for nine months, and it was during that time he had a lot of time on his hands.

"“He was a really good artist, and so we started doing loads of drawings together, and spoke to engineers throughout the Midlands, who helped him put it all together.”

The company was created and patented by Paul in 2002, and has become popular throughout the country. She said: “No one had ever made anything like this.

"There was nothing like it in the world at the time, so he patented it - it was his baby. My late husband was a church minister for years, and he used to do the services and he’d buried loads of his friend who were bikers, but they were buried in automobile hearses.

"That didn’t sit right with him, because he thought that whenever it was his time to go, he wouldn’t want to go out in an automobile hearse, because he’s been a biker his whole life.

“The way he described it was - if someone is a Muslim, you’d never give them a Christian burial, and if someone is a Christian, you’d never give them a Muslim burial, so he felt it was important for bikers to be able to choose a different route.

“While it's a business, it is much more than that. It’s more of a service and being passionate about service and giving families the choice, which takes a bit of the edge off a difficult time.

"Not only have we had bikers use us, we’ve even had non-bikers who wanted something different use our service. It’s been amazing and so heart-warming.

"We’ve had a lot of people say that, what could have been a traumatic day, ended up being a lovely day. People are always taking pictures because they’ve never seen anything like it.

"For me, we were both passionate about serving the public and the community and that kept us going for so long, so when my husband passed away, I couldn’t have thought of a better way of continuing his legacy that doing this.

"It’s not just our legacy, but it’s the legacy of the families that have come to us - it’s such an honourable thing to hear."

References

1. ^{^} Community who raised £500k to save village pub finally buy it back after years of campaigning (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)