In October 2017, one of the best known characters in our hobby, John Stevenson, passed on. Although John professed to be a ‘bodger’, the self-styled Sir John, Earl of Bridgeport & Sudspumpwater. MBE [Motor Bike Engineer], had amassed a lifetime’s engineering skills.

Model and hobby engineering is a field full of many colourful characters, but John was unique. He combined almost effortless skill in the workshop with an instinct for good design. Despite a reputation for being forthright and not always the most diplomatic of posters online, John always had time and respect for anyone interested in engineering as hobby. He helped a huge number of beginners and more experienced folk with advice and often practical help, bits of tooling or good deals. He was a well-known face at the model engineering shows. as well as being a prolific poster on many of the online engineering forums. A huge number of tributes and stories about John have been posted online, and its clear that his passing will leave a big hole in our community.

A number of people have suggested that it would be nice to remember John with a trophy. That said, while John appreciated the skill that went into what you might call ‘glass-case models’ he worried that sometimes these could put mere mortals off having a go. An award that went to the best-finished or most complex piece of work wouldn’t fit with what he would want to encourage. The things John liked to see more than anything else were well-made, practical tools that showed a bit of ingenuity, good design and weren’t over finished.

The John Stevenson Trophy will be for just that, a well-made and practical bit of tooling, a modification to a machine or an accessory for a tool where the fact it works well is more important than scraping every visible surface. Actually, over-finishing should result in immediate disqualification!

Award of the cup should be judged by a popular vote. As he was such a mainstay of the Model Engineer Forum, we propose that users will vote on the best tool featured in MEW, ME or the forum each year, from a short-list of nominees. Voting will be via a poll on the forum and open to all. This will allow the cup to be awarded every year.

What was formerly the ‘Harrogate’ and now the ‘Doncaster’ show was John’s favourite event in the calendar. The organisers of what is properly called the Northern Modelling and Model Engineering Exhibition (NMMEX), have kindly agreed that the award can be made at the show. We will invite the nominees to exhibit their entries at the show.