Hello:
I just read a fascinating article with Captain Tom Moore describing in his own words his stint in the British army while serving in Burma as a dispatch rider and dispatch rider trainer. However, he never mentions the type or types of motorbike he used, only that it was "his motorbike". Does anyone have any insight into what WD motorcycle(s) he used? Thanks.
Doc

email (option): h2odocatnmtdotedu

Hi Doc,
I seem to recall a photo of Cap'n Moore with his bike in a recent edition of Old Bike Mart (Feb / March?). Does anyone still have a copy...?

email (option): cmmacd@hotmail.co.uk

Most of them are with a Scott Flying Squirrel. It seems an unlikely bike for trials courses, but he won cups with them. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Ron,in the pre war days when Captain Tom was riding a Scott in trials the competitions were a lot less specialised than later on and nothing like todays events which are more like trick riding events. Scotts were quite widely used and successful in trials in the '20s and '30s, particularly in Yorkshire. Alfred Scott could be said to have "invented" trials when he started to organise runs up the Yorkshire dales for his employees to try out his Scotts over the rough tracks in remote areas, it was early R&D! These test runs soon developed into the famous Scott Trial, open to any make of bike, and which is still run today.
Tom's Scott is still around and was in the Bradford Industrial Museum, it's probably still there .

Are these two photos actually pre-war ? They look to be 1950s VMCC events to me. The trophy is definitley a 'historic' sort of thing and not a 1930s cup or shield.

In that case, then there were probably class trophies as well as overall winners.

Hi Rik, I think you are right, I now remember reading that Captain Tom used to watch trials before the war, and a photo showed him as a boy standing near a gate in a wall as competitors passed by. The photos of Tom on the Scott do look to be post war. They could have been taken at the Ilkley Veterans Reunion trial which I think started in the fifties for older riders who still liked to compete using older machinery. I also seem to remember that Tom said he had been loaned a Scott for some events, although he had owned one previously.

The smaller photo definitely looks post war. The woman on the far left isn't wearing 1930s clothing.

The smaller pic is not Capt.Moore but Harold Wood of Bradford, photographer, journalist and film maker riding in an Ilkley Reunion Trial, post WW2

David, I hadn't spotted that, I tried to enlarge that photo but the computer said No, at least without joining something that I didn't want to. I see the bike has the "Works" AK 222 number, and I wonder if it is at Dob Park, the ford entrance looks to be paved, and I think that the large rock in the middle is still there, I propped my 500T Norton against it to take a photo last year!