In Loving Memory of
JOHN BRIAN LECK
BELOVED SON OF JOHN TOWERS AND MARY LECK
WHO WAS ACCIDENTLY (sic) KILLED ON MONDAY
AUGUST 28TH 1950, AGED 17 YEARS.
“AT REST”
ALSO JOHN TOWERS LECK, HIS FATHER,
BORN 19TH APRIL 1908. DIED 9TH JUNE 1963.
AND MARY LECK, HIS MOTHER,
BORN 7TH OCTOBER 1909, DIED 18TH SEPTEMBER 1988

On 9 September 1950 the following letter appeared in the Barrow News:

The late Brian Leck

Sir. – We were all very grieved to hear of the fatal accident to Brian Leck.
As one of the oldest sporting men in the district, I would like to offer our very deepest sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Leck, of Mayfield, Springfield Road, Ulverston, and their family.

I have judged Brian riding at the shows and in the leaping competitions and often watched him. He was a courageous, capable rider.

It grieves us that such a bright, promising career should be cut short.

GEORGE DICKINSON, The Mount, Cark.

INQUEST ON ULVERSTON SCHOOLBOY

“I DON’T think he ever saw me at all”, a tractor driver said at the inquest at Ulverston on Friday last week – briefly reported in our last issue – on John Brian Leck, a 17 years-old Ulverston Grammar School boy, of Mayfield, Springfield Road, Ulverston, who was fatally injured when riding his motor-cycle, in a collision with a tractor on the previous Monday.

A verdict of “Accidental death” was returned.

Evidence of identification was given by John Towers Leck, the boy’s father, who said that his son had held a provisional licence and had driven motor-cycles since Easter. On August 19 he bought him a 350c.c. motor-cycle, and was satisfied the boy was competent to drive it.

P.C. Gee told the Coroner (Mr. J. Poole) that it was practically a straight piece of road where the accident occurred in Swarthmoor Hall Road, Ulverston. The road was 7ft 10in wide and the tractor 5ft 3in wide. 

Alfred Charles Burch, of Crowtrees Farm, Pennington, the driver of the tractor, which was owned by his father, said he was travelling at 6 M.P.H., when nearing Swarthmoor Hall he saw about 60 yards ahead a motor-cycle approaching at speed on the wrong side of the road.

The motor-cyclist had his head turned round to the right and appeared to be looking at his exhaust pipe. He did not lift his head.

Burch said he pulled in to his own side and had almost stopped when the motor-cycle hit the tractor, mounted the grass verge and finished upside down.

“I don’t think he ever saw me at all”, he said.

The Coroner expressed sympathy with the relatives, with which Supt. J. H. Bell, Mr. C. G. Penny and Mr. J. Heron, for the tractor driver, associated themselves.

Mr. G. N. Worthington appeared for the relatives.
Mr. C. G. Penny was foreman of the jury.

AN ULVERSTON COLLISION

A Lowick motor-cyclist, John Towers Leck, of Moss House, and his two friends, Edward Cotton, Lowick Green, and William Lionel Brinklow, Fountain-street, Ulverston, who were riding in the side-car and on the pillion-seat respectively, had a narrow escape from serious injury on Sunday afternoon when the motor-cycle combination was badly smashed in a collision with a motor-omnibus, at the corner of Market-place and Queen-street, Ulverston. Leck was riding towards Queen-street, and the ‘bus in the opposite direction. The off-side mudguard of the ‘bus was damaged. The driver of the motor-cycle escaped with cuts above the eyes, and his two friends, apart from the shock, sustained minor injuries.

MR. J. T. LECK, LOWICK

Mr. John Towers Leck, of Lowick House, Lowick, near Ulverston, who died on June 9 last, aged 54, left £8577 gross, £220 net value.

Mr. Leck, a builder and contractor, of John Leck and Sons, was a follower of racing under National Hunt Rules on most Northern tracks, area representative for the British Show Jumping Association and a judge at many jumping events, vice-president of the Furness and District Motor Club, and had taken part in the Monte Carlo rallies.

Probate has been granted to his widow, Mrs. Mary Leck, of the same address, the sole executrix.

Picture from Jowett 1901-1954 by Noel Stokoe (Tempus 1999) (Permission to use granted by Noel Stokoe 11/07/2025), showing (L-R) Tommy Harrison, Bill Robinson, and Towers Leck.

Bill Robinson ran Mill Brow Garage at the time. Bill Robinson, Les Hall and Tom Ward competed against Towers Leck, Bert West and Tom Iddon in the Tulip Rally 1949 (to Amsterdam). Leck’s team had engine trouble near Paris, according to Noel Stokoe’s book Sporting Jowetts (The History Press 2009). However, contemporary press coverage in the Barrow News 7 May 1949 suggests that Robinson and Leck were in the same car, which finished 21st out of 162 competitors.

Leck Construction is the current entity of the long-standing building company founded by John Towers Leck. It has been responsible for local projects such as Emlyn Hughes House on Abbey Road, Barrow; the houses that replaced Arlington House on Abbey Road; extensions to Ostley House; the Lantern House in Ulverston; Barrow Sixth Form College; replacing the roof on St. James’ Church, and rehanging the bells, numerous housing projects, and building Abbey Meadow Nursing Home on Flass Lane, Barrow.