rewdco

Does anybody know where Capt. J.J. Hall was stationed during the war? I wonder if the picture below could have been taken at the RASC Officers' Training School in Bournemouth. The Lieut. Col. on the left is C.E. Bowden, inventor of the task system for the military vehicles, and head of the Bournemouth Training School. I wonder if Capt. J.J. Hall (4th from left, standing) also worked there? The man in a suit, kneeled at the left hand side of the Enfield, is also an officer, as can be seen in the pictures with the Welbike. I can't work out if he's also a Lieut. Col. or "only" a First Lieut. 🤔 Does anyone recognise this man? And could that be the entrance of the Bournemouth Training School in the first picture...? By the way, Capt. J.J. Hall started writing for MotorCycling on Feb 21st 1941. For several years he wrote articles about the vintage motorcycles that he had bought, and he was one of the founder members of the VMCC. Well, he even was their first President!

Is that a British Leyland sticker on the lathe Lex, or are my eyes deceiving me...? 😉

Please send me a PM Chris...

Small correction... #6185 was despatched from the factory on 17/02/1944, destination War Department Handsworth, under contract S/1945 (4000 motorcycles). I agree with the census number though... As for the stencils, have a look at this thread: I notice that this is the rather sorry looking project that was on eBay in September 2019... Brave man! 👍

Talking about Captain Hall... During the Spanish Civil War, the Republicans (socialists and communists) were fighting against the Nationalists (fascists). The Nationalists got a lot of support from Germany and Italy, but the other European countries did not really want to support the Republican Army... Nobody in Europe wanted to help the communists... Fact is however that the Republicans bought almost 1000 Royal Enfield Model J's through the Paris importer Pierre Psalty, and 500 Norton Model 18's through the Paris importer Lucien Psalty. But in the BSA ledgers there is all of a sudden a mysterious "Captain Ball" (very often with address "Paris", sometimes with address "London", and a lot of entries without any address at all, which is quite unusual in these ledgers) who bought hundreds of BSA M22's during the same period of the Psalty Enfields and Nortons. And we know from contemporary photographs that the Republicans also had lots of BSA M22's. One and one is two, I think it's not difficult to guess who Captain Ball was selling his bikes to... I have been wondering... Captain Hall... motorcycles... Captain Ball... Would it...???🤔

Serious now... There's definitely more in the VMCC library (that's where I found the snippet above). J.J. Hall was a regular contributor for MotorCycling, and it looks as if he was the custodian of EAB 332. We know that EAB 456 went to Arthur Bourne of The Motor Cycle, I'm pretty sure that the factory had a demonstrator for both weeklies. But Artur Bourne did a 5 pages article on the new lightweights in October 1943, while MotorCycling only used the bike for this small "article" in December 1943... What happened with both demonstrators between the registration dates (November 6th 1942 for EAB 332 and January 9th 1943 for EAB 456) and and the time that they were featured in the weeklies (October - December 1943)? I have no idea about EAB 456, but EAB 332 was tested by the Army as can be seen in the following pictures, and we can also see it in the hands of Tony Wilson Jones, the chief designer at Royal Enfields, standing in a group of Despatch Riders. And last but not least, we also see EAB 332 being checked over by several military people (Capt. Hall is standing in the middle) and a few civilians. Does anybody recognise the other people or the location...?

Think so! Chris is also a Captain Hall! 😂

Thank you very much Lex! Now what is the Flea doing next to a 1939 AJS V4 racer...? Any chance of sending me the complete article? 😊 Jan

The front brake plate comes from a post war "Model G" I'm afraid to say... 😐

I found this snippet in Captain J.J. Hall's scrapbook at the VMCC library. Captain Hall was writing for MotorCycling magazine from time to time, and EAB 332 was a works registration number that was issued on November 6th 1942 (which makes it a pre-production WD/RE). Sister bike EAB 456 was sent to Arthur Bourne at The Motor Cycle, who did an article on this bike in October 1943. But my question is: does anybody know in which issue from MotorCycling this picture was used? My guess is that this picture was published between November 6th (when the registration number was issued) and May 1943 (which was when production of the first WD/RE contract was being started). Has anybody got issues of MotorCycling from this period? Thanks for your help! Jan

If you want to keep it as a Bar None bike, the WD/C option would be the more logical choice. I've never seen pictures of a WD/CO in Egypt, but there were definitely WD/Cs there!

No, I think it's an Ariel! The position of the horn is typical, an I think I can just see the depression in the tank where the ARIEL logo fits...

I must admit that you're correct Chris! 😐 But that would mean that this is a "post war Model C" frame, made for the civilian market. And that would date it to July 1948...

Oops, I have been a bit too quick in my response... And I must admit that Chris is correct. The front frame (with the frame number!) is WD/CO (it has the tapered downtube), but the rear frame and the forks are WD/C indeed... Jan

Thanks for sharing Tyler! Well, here's what I can tell you about your new toy: Frame number 19751 was despatched from the factory on 24/11/1943 to the War Office in Sheffield. It was one of the 2826 bikes for the RAF contract C/14219. The "special" thing about these RAF contract bikes is that they did not have pannier frames and pillion equipment... The engine with duplicated frame number 14182 left the factory on 09/09/1942, as part of Army contract C/13870. This was a contract for 3000 WD/CO/B bikes, the B standing for Burman gearbox. The Army was afraid that Albion (who had been making gearboxes for Royal Enfield for ages) wouldn't have enough production capacity, so they split up a 6000 bikes demand in two contracts: C/13869 were 3000 bikes with an Albion gearbox, C/13870 were 3000 bikes with a Burman gearbox... HBO is a post war Albion gearbox number though... Regards, Jan

Good idea! If Tyler starts a new thread, I'll add the details of the bike.

Are you the seller of the bar-none bike on eBay then? Jan

I knew I had seen it somewhere... 😁

Think the tele-Ariel was Artur Bourne's personal hack. Remember reading this somewhere...

Looks like a different air filter (?) on this one...?

Ariel W/NG in the post war Belgian Army...? Here are a few...

Found this wonderful document on Taff's website. Unfortunately it is only low-res... Hope it is useful...

Wow Chris! That's an interesting project! 👍

Exactly the same as in the works photographs...

Just checked the parts lists that I have for the WD/RE: Contract Part No. S831 Don't think there was a parts list for this contract C14775 Don't think there was a parts list for this contract S1945 MT12/VS/V496E S6602 MT12/VS/V496E S7112 MT12/VS/V496E