‘Star Power: Sir Bruce Small & Malvern Star
HE MAY HAVE BEEN ‘SMALL’ BY NAME. BUT THERE was nothing small about the influence of Sir Andrew Bruce Small over Australian cycling in the early to mid-1900s. Confident, charismatic and unashamedly commercial, Small was a pivotal figure during a golden age of Australian cycling. As the driving force behind Malvern Star, he will be forever remembered as one of the sport’s great entrepreneurs.
Somewhat ironically considering the brand that drove so much of his early fame is linked, by name, with the inner suburbs of Melbourne, Bruce Small was actually born in the working class Sydney suburb of Ryde. Entering this world on 11 December 1895, the second of six children, he spent much of his childhood on the move. In a biography of Small’s life, author Robert Longhurst explained, “he attended fourteen schools before he finished his formal education at the
