George Beatty Sterne (or G.B. as he was known to most people) was Mr. Morgan in Western Canada and the US Pacific North West.

G.B. was born in 1912 and grew up, and was educated in Edmonton, Alberta. Sterne (known as “Beatty” during his youth) was a police officer in his early years and won the Canadian Motorcycle Hillclimb Championship in 1931. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War Two. After the war, Sterne and his wife Lydia moved to Sidney, BC. It was in Sidney that G.B. dis-covered motorsport when in 1952 he purchased a MGTD sports car. Shortly thereafter, he became a member of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC), and by October 1954 a 42-year-old G.B. was racing his MGTD at Abbotsford Airport.

The real story begins in the fall of 1956 when Sterne becomes the Western Canada importer for Morgan sports cars, the legendary and rather quirky British cars. To promote the Morgans, George raced them extensively. G.B., and later his son Bob, competed in hundreds of races at dozens of tracks. The Sternes infurated their competitors

G.B. STERNE - Inducted 2004

Pioneer - Sports Car and Road Racing

by Tom Johnston, 2004

G.B. Sterne in his Morgan at Westwood’s first race, 1959  (SCCBC Archives)

G.B. Sterne

by driving the Morgans to the track, often pulling a small trailer for tires and support gear and then winning the race, then driving home.

Both George and Lydia were very involved in the affairs of the International Conference of Sports Car Clubs (ICSCC or Conference) as well as SCCBC. The pair acted as director and registrar of Conference’s Novice Driver Program for many years. In 1970, Conference honoured Sterne by naming the award given annually to their top

novice driver, the G.B. Sterne Trophy.

G.B. and his Morgans won count-less races and championships. One news report in the 1970s stated that Sterne had 397 trophies, and at the time he was still racing and winning!

The original Sterne’s Garage Morgan dealership was in a Chevron station at 10612 McDonald Park Road, then later at 10305 Patricia Bay Highway, both in Sidney (near Victoria) on Vancouver Island. In 1964, the business moved to Burnaby for the bigger Vancouver area market and (presumably) to be closer to the Westwood Racing Circuit. A grander sounding Sterne Motors was located at 3712 Grandview Highway at Boundary Road. Bob continued the business for many years after his dad’s retirement in 1976.

G.B. lived a long and active life; he passed away at age 78 in 1990 at his home at Deep Bay on Vancouver Island where he and Lydia returned after retiring from the Morgan business.