The statistics there are truly appalling.
Racers had to wear helmets well before the War. Some years back I sold an amazing helmet with 'Sunbeam' hand painted on the front and the original ACU logo on the back, I would guess it dated from the 1920s. Unfortunately no history with it so no idea whose it was. Cork, very similar to those adopted for our Despatch Riders , I was asked to sell it by a friend with no EBay, really wish I had made them an offer an kept it.
Those returning from the front line did a pretty good job - Guthrie, Woods and Walker were all WW1 Despatch Riders who were at the top of their game a racers
and of course as we know from the sad news last week, Geoff Duke was a WW2 Despatch Rider
