Well here's a thing! I restored that actual bike for Lex. The guy sitting on it is well known and I think Lex has been in touch with his family. Hopefully Lex will pick up the story. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

At the time, he was Lieutenant Geoffrey Keating and he was there as a War Office photographer. He was responsible for many of the well-known BEF images and he seemed to have a liking for vehicles (or maybe he was simply told to portray mechanisation ?

It was quite exciting as Lex began to reveal that number plate !

https://www.rimakeating.co.uk/Geoffrey.J.Keating,MC,PHOTO%20ARCHIVE.html

Ok, I thought I had posted that stuff here last year? but it is so, after carefull sanding of the front number plate the number of that bike appeared, but very worn and rusty! The thing that annoys me most, is that normally the C number was stamped in the engine, but no trace of it here.

Here a picture of the same bike in 4 "timezones"



The second picture is when a Priest in Brittany used the bike, and when he passed away, his nephew got it, and eventually sold it to a collector nearby, that's the 3rd picture, then Jan found it, and tipped me off, so as it was numbers matching, but many parts wrong, like a KM20 petrol tank, Norton 16H early rear rack and mudguard, Triumph wheels, I still bought it, and when home, sold on the wrong parts, and got most of the right stuff in a short period, with the help of Arnaud, Jan, Ron, and some other people, I was really lucky to find many (rare) parts in a very short time! so after some nagging, Ron agreed to restore the bike, and here we are now, done 950 miles since I got it home early last year, and am very happy with it, still some issues to be dealt with, but will be done this year!

We, Rik and I have never had any response to our emails and other messages to Rima Keating, I'd really like to know if he was just posing on the bike, or if it really was his transport!

Thanks for everybody involved in this timecapsule!

Cheers,

Lex

Ps, there is something weird going on with the picture hosting, my pictures are very blurry! the original is very sharp!

email (option): welbike@welb**e.net

The photo was on ebay last week,original press photo WW2 BEF France 1940 , ebay item no 184638846861.

Thanks Steve, but we have it, it's a IWM picture, and as such shouldn't be on Ebay!

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welb**e.net

Its a great story, what a find.

As to original pictures, the original would be the negative from which several or many photographs could be produced, there have been a lot of wartime period photographic prints on ebay of late which pre date the IWM receiving their print in which case these are not covered by IWM copyright as they are not taken from the IWM image, there are also many which are so be careful.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Thanks Rob! it's not so much IWM can claim copyright that expired ages ago, but they have some sort of licensing agreement, you have to pay for, but as you say, if you have an original print, as a lot of photo agencies were given out for press releases etc. then you can freely use it, and I will do so in the future, but if you ordered prints from the IWM, there's a big stamp on the back! and I wonder what the source of some Ebay sellers is.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welb**e.net

Hi,
the man sitting on the bike is my late father, lt. Col. Geoffrey John Keating, MC

Do get in touch,
thanks

Rima Keating

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

Hello Rima. I've text Lex about this. He's just left my house, heading back to NL. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Splendid Rima, have tried to contact you via your website many times, but never went through I guess.

I'll email again tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers,

Lex

email (option): welbike@welbike.net

Wonderful news, to have contact with Geoffrey Keating's family, Lex...especially so if there are any surving journals or notes which explain just where and why he was on that RASC Royal Enfield in France in May / June 1940.