From Maths to motorbikes: Reg's lifelong learning journey
As a London schoolboy in the early 1960s, Reg Eyre used to walk past Birkbeck College, never imagining that one day he would emerge from its doors “blinking into the daylight as Doctor Reg”.
Reg Eyre's first connection to Birkbeck came after spotting a notice that “volunteers were required for the Psychology students” and he became a paid volunteer for some of their early experiments.
Reg trained as a mathematics teacher at Borough Road Teacher Training College, where he realised that he had “missed out on taking the subject to a higher level”. He soon discovered that he could study for a BSc in Mathematical Sciences at Birkbeck, attending classes by night while teaching by day. After four years, he graduated with a deeper resolve to explore why so many learners found the subject daunting. This led to an MSc at South Bank Polytechnic aimed at teachers and focused on mathematical learning.
His teaching career evolved and Reg became involved in promoting the use of computers across the curriculum, later moving into advisory work with the local authority, supporting teachers and students. When those services were cut back, he transitioned into teacher education roles at Derby University and University College Northampton, where he began to secure educational research grants from the Department for Education. Realising that he lacked the formal research training to fully support this work, he once again returned to study, this time for an MA in Research Methods, a testament to his enduring commitment to lifelong education.
Upon retirement, Reg decided to pursue the passion that had long brought him joy: researching and riding early motorised bicycles. He said: “For my retirement, I took a three-month trip riding a motorcycle around New Zealand and realised how much of their history was still accessible in museums and libraries. I returned home to write up what I had discovered and then read that Birkbeck College was opening a Centre for New Zealand Studies.”
Professor Ian Conrich, who founded and directed the centre, which has since closed, invited him back two weeks later and suggested that he had “enough enthusiasm, questions and material to register for a PhD.”
Four years later, Reg says became only the third person ever to submit a thesis with the word ‘motorcycle’ in its title. Today, Reg continues to research and write about historic motorcycles and to ride his beloved vintage machines, including his 1913 Sunbeam, 1914 Wall Auto-Wheel, 1929 Sunbeam Sports and 1939 Triumph, as often as he can.