Joe MegsonPrint Page

The tablet at the grave commemorates champion cyclist Joe Megson who died in 1920. 

Joe Megson, old-time champion cyclist of Australasia, has died in his home at Newtown aged 47 years. A big, loose-limbed youth pushed a bicycle on to the racing track in the booming amateur days of the late eighties. He looked powerful, but awkward, and rode that way. But he was picked then as the makings of a champion. The time came in the mid nineties when Joe Megson, the loose limbed youth, became the most versatile champion produced by this State. Those who saw him win in 1895, the half, one, five and ten miles championships would have backed him to pedal down life`s roadway until tiring at a ripe old age. Time, however, dealt heavily with Megson.

There were few more popular riders than Megson. Ths crowd admired his power and determination, and he had the wonderful finishing sprint that could always be counted on to provide the thriller of the day. He was the star of the Leagues' opening carnival in 1895. That year he also won the one mile championship of Victoria and South Australia, and the five and ten miles Australasian championship run under the auspices of the League. That was the five miles championship of the State run at Newcastle in 1894. "Wait till Megson gets the hump," the wise ones in the crowd used to say, and as the field would swing round into the last lap, Joe would hunch his shoulders, put his nose nearly on the front wheel, and shoot out like lightning. During 1896 the League organised a carnival to send Megson, Lewis, and Payne to England. They were not successful owing chiefly to their ignorance of properly banked tracks, to the climatic conditions, and to an unusually large number of misfortunes in the shape of accidents while racing or training.
Bathurst Times (NSW), 11 May 1920.

The League of N.S.W. Wheelmen have erected a tablet at Rookwood Cemetery in memory of the late Joe Megson, and Mr. Allan M'Dougall, president of the league will unveil the tablet to-morrow.
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 18 September 1920. 

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