Good Evening

My Uncle is in the process of restoring his BSA 1941 WD M20 and asked if I'd find out what it was 'up to' during the war.

The information I've been given is this:

Engine No: 35978
Frame No: WM20 35978

and these markings were found while disassembling it:

Square with Blue/Yellow diagonal divide with 8 on one side and and 4 on the other.

Some desert sand colour paint was found under layers of other paint.

Also, I've read on several websites there's something called a Key Card that can help. Can any of you good people tell me more about what this 'Key Card' is please and how I might obtain one or at least the info it holds.

My Uncle & Myself would be be really grateful for any help you can give.

Many thanks

grum64

The 'Key Cards' are a record of the transfer from the wartime registration system to the new system in 1948 or so. Some of these records survive and may show bikes which were still in service at the time, with possibly the last unit at time of disposal.

Lex and Henk have copies of the surviving BSA numbers.

A Blue / Yellow Arm of Service sign is the post-war code used by the Royal Army Service Corps (wartime was Red / Green) The unit indicated by the serial will be quite difficult to track down.

Unfortunately, none of the wartime records of unit allocation appear to have survived.

Hi,

Send me an email and I'll send you what I can find about your bike.

Henk

email (option): ahum@quicknet.nl

Good Afternoon Rik

Thank you for the information you gave rearding the Key Card for my Uncles 1941 BSA M20.

I've been in contact with Henk and he's very kindly provided me with some very interesting information including the Key Card.

The Key Card has, in it's second last column 566 SQN RCT (Tn) and I'm curious to know if this, as I assume, means that the bike was with 566 Squadren Royal Corps of Transport. If my assumption is correct do you have or know where I might obtain any information on its time with them?

If it helps, the information I had about the bike was:

Engine No: 35978
Frame No: WM20 35978

These markings were found while disassembling it:

Square with Blue/Yellow diagonal divide with 8 on one side and and 4 on the other.

A desert sand colour paint was found under layers of other paint.

This is the information given by Henk:

This BSA is in both post-war key cards and in the factory ledgers. As you can see the BSA left the factory 12-2-1941 and went to the War Office in London.

Tthe key card shows the post war military licence number 50YD71. During the war the BSA was rebuilt and rebuilt bikes received a new tank number that always started with C14. This bike had C1447522. The tank number it had when it left the factory was C4316602.

As you can see, thanks to Henk I've now got a good bit more information for my Uncle.

I'd really appreciate any help you can give.

Grum

Grum, I'm really not well informed on the post-war British Army (to be honest, my interest peaks around 1940).

The RCT was formed from RASC and it could be that your bike was held in one of their depots or perhaps taking account of the markings, it served with them. Their successors are the Royal Logisitics Corps who have a museum. They may be able to give you further information (but in these under-funded times, they're just as likely to want to charge you for a search that turns up nothing).

The machine was clearly still in service after 1965. I don't think that you're going to be able to turn up anything about its wartime service.

Keith, there are some surviving Norton cards but I believe they're incomplete. They are in any case less extensive as many Nortons were either in service with the Canadians or were disposed of prior to 1948. The problem with these cards is that they're collated by post-war registration and not by frame number or wartime serial. As far as I'm aware, no-one has created the same sort of database as the BSA chaps have which means that searching for any single machine requires looking through thousands of hand-written records.

If you let me know your frame number, I'll see if there is anything in the records that I've looked at over the years, but I can't promise a result.

Thanks for that Rik
It was a long shot as the army disposed of the bike in 1948. I don't know the postwar army reg but the frame is (W)77402. Thanks for looking anyway.

Hi Rik

Thank you for your very quick reply and for the info.

I'll pass it on to my Uncle who, as with everyone who's replied to my initial request for info, he'll be very grateful to.

Regards

Grum

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

Hi Lex
Many thanks for looking anyway. Like I said it was a long shot but now I know I've got all the information that's out there.