I understand that all Military motorcycles purchased by the War Department were marked with a Equipment Registration Mark. If this information is correct can anyone tell me where I should be able to find this mark on a Norton 16H. If possible I would also like to understand the format of the Mark.
In my opinion, this was not always the case. There was no standard marking on WD motorcycles.
It does seem to have been the case that initially at least, most factories were subject to the presence of a ministry inspector who had a unique identification number and seems to have stayed at locations for roughly six months or so before being rotated.
In general, Norton engines produced between 1937 and 1942 seem to have been stamped with an 'M' and a broad arrow and the inspector's number, between the engine number and the 79x100 stamp. Engines after W50000 never seem to display this stamp.
Tracing an individual history is pretty much impossible based on the few surviving records. The best thing to do after reading the page on Rob van den Brink's website would be to put the details and photographs on this forum. There may be some clues in workshop rebuild numbers etc.
The E.R.M. system of two numbers two letters to numbers is still in use today. All Army vehicles have one. My WD B40 was issued with 84ET84. This system was introduced in the late forties I believe so all those sold off at the end of the war would never have been issued with one.
The RLC archive has quite a large collection B vehicle record cards and for a fee will do a frame number search to see if they have a card. I have found them quite helpful.
Cheers, Mick.