RIP Pennine Amiga Club International

For all the Amiga users who go back to the 1980's/90's, many of you would have heard of, or been a member of, the Pennine Amiga Club International.

This was a club with world-wide membership and was run single handedly by Neville Armstrong.

It is with great sadness that I post this message to inform all who knew Neville either personally or via the club that he passed away suddenly on January 7th 2011 aged 72.

Personally, Neville was a very dear friend and I spent many many happy hours helping him with the club. (I did all the repairs - the only thing Neville did not do himself) Neville was a great promoter and advocate for the Amiga and will be sadly missed.

Sad news indeed. It is always sad to hear of a lose in the community, and I send my condolences to his family, friends and especially those who came to know him well within his Amiga Club.

May I ask. Did the Pennine Amiga Club International have an online presence? I just tried to look but didn't find any links. Would be nice to have a page setup for someone responsible for running a successful Amiga club.

No, the Pennine Amiga Club never had a website which was a shame.
The membership was over 1000 and Neville had a map of the world on the wall.
Pins were in the map to mark the locations od the members.
For those who had not heard of the club it was built round the PD scene but evolved
To the point where Neville was buying and selling hardware and software and was
Always available to offer help and advise either over the phone or post.
The repair scene was poor at that time, so Neville offered a repair service too,
That's where I fit into the club doing the repairs and helping with technical queries
At the onset of the web it was of course expensive and as membership was free and
Profits small. It was never run for profit. Neville could not see any benefit to the web
As it would have increased costs to the members

Is there a history of the club? I'm asking because I thought it might be nice to have something online as a legacy to his work and his members. I would like to offer some space on classicamiga.com for an article about him and his club if you have any information and history of the club you could share?

And what happened to the club, was it still running until he died? If so, who is running it now? or what happened to it and its members?

Always sad to hear a founder of a club for people who are into the same hobby passes away.

If the club still exists, the best way to commemorate the man is to continue it.

This is really sad news.

I was the South Wales area co-ordinator for P.A.C. and although I had never met Neville personally, I had spoken to him on many occasion on the phone, and we used to exchange jiffy bags full of 3.5" disks on an almost weekly basis!

Always a font of information on anything Amiga, I gained invaluable knowledge from Neville. he also sorted out a cracking deal on my first U.S. Robotics 56k modem! The trading with Neville also enabled me to gather such an extensive public domain library that I was able to start up my own little business, operating from mail order and out of Eagle Computers in Cardiff.

Rest in Peace Neville - A true gent
,

Ross