Persons familiar with the inter war years will no doubt be familiar that Germany particularly enjoyed hosting world sporting events so that they could exhibit the fatherland’s prowess in ability and superiority of strength over other nations.
With this in mind Germany’s intention to hold every ISDT from the ISDT 1934 onwards was only thwarted by those pesky Brits winning the event in 1936 and ’37 earning them to hold the event. Although the British team won the International Trophy in the home ISDT 1938, politics intervened and the right to hold the event was passed back to Germany. The Germans elected to hold the ISDT 1939 in recently annexed Austria and planned to put on what could have been the best organised ISDT ever because of the state resources the Nazi Government were able to call on to organise this globally prestigious event.
As with many such well laid plans, history awkwardly intervened and at the time of the first day international relations between Germany and a number of countries was at an all time low. Before the end of the week a number of Governments were so concerned about the way events appeared to be escalating that they instructed their teams, as a matter of safety, to abandon the event and make their way home. This was to be sure no riders, especially the army’s best motorcyclists who were taking part, were caught in a war-zone becoming potentially interred in camps for the duration of the war. The Second World War began on the 1st September 1939 when Germany with agreement of Russia’s leader Stalin entered Poland, 4 days after the official end of the ISDT on the 26th August 1939.
The methods by which team British Riders reached home meant that whilst some enjoyed a cordial military escort provided by the Germans but a number chose to take routes through Switzerland and neutral countries such as Spain to reach ports they could catch ships to return them to the UK. For this reason the event became better known to many as ‘the Great Escape’ not unlike the action filled movie with Steve McQueen based on a wartime drama of a PoW escape attempt.
After checking the final results it appears 61 riders along with unrecorded team helpers took part in the event. Below for sake of a permanent record of these riders is a list of those who partook in ‘the Great Escape’. In addition to the list of riders we will try to collect as many photos as we can find of these riders to hopefully ensure their names and deeds will not go unforgotten.
List British Competitors ISDT 1939
Plate | Name | Entrant | Marque | Capacity | Group | Class |
10 | Croker JB | Triumph | 498 | IV | C | |
14 | Whitehouse FA | CSMA | BSA | 500 | IV | C |
20 | Toomey HM | Panther | 498 | IV | C | |
24 | Peacock WHJ | Ariel | 997 | III | G | |
27 | Heath L | Ariel | Ariel | 497 | IV | C |
30 | Perks FC | CSMA | BSA | 498 | IV | C |
34 | Taylor HR | Ariel | Ariel | 997 | III | G |
36 | Dalby Sgt IT | War Office | Norton | 490 | IV | C |
39 | Oates G | Ariel | 997 | III | G | |
42 | Mooney TH | Ariel | 497 | IV | C | |
47 | Ridgeway L | BSA | 498 | IV | C | |
52 | Jeffries A | Triumph | Triumph | 498 | IV | C |
58 | Brittain V | Norton | Norton | 490 | IV | C |
63 | Blockley TN | BSA | 496 | IV | C | |
64 | Tozer H | BSA | BSA | 496 | III | F |
68 | Riley Ltn JF | War Office | Norton | 490 | IV | C |
75 | Doyle Cpl AC | War Office | BSA | 496 | IV | C |
77 | Money Ltn RC | BSA | 496 | IV | C | |
81 | Povey F | Ariel | Ariel | 497 | IV | C |
87 | Whitefield JF | BMW | 494 | IV | C | |
92 | Cunningham SE | Ariel | 497 | IV | C | |
101 | Rist Sgt FM | War Office | BSA | 496 | IV | C |
108 | West WA | Ariel | Ariel | 497 | IV | C |
113 | Wood Pt JL | War Office | BSA | 495 | IV | C |
116 | Arnott JH | BSA | BSA | 496 | IV | C |
119 | Galloway Dr RL | Rudge | 499 | III | F | |
121 | Wood GH | Triumph | Triumph | 343 | IV | B |
123 | Williams E | Royal Enfield | 350 | IV | B | |
125 | Whitton TC | AMC | AJS | 347 | IV | B |
127 | White J | Ariel | 348 | IV | B | |
128 | Tiffen WT | Velocette | 348 | IV | B | |
131 | Smith E | War Office | Matchless | 347 | IV | B |
132 | Slim H | Triumph | Triumph | 343 | IV | B |
135 | Rowley GE | AMC | AJS | 347 | IV | B |
137 | Rogers CM | Royal Enfield | 346 | IV | B | |
140 | Saunders AA | Triumph | 343 | IV | B | |
142 | MacKay Sgt Major B | War Office | Matchless | 347 | IV | B |
145 | Jayne CL | Royal Enfield | 348 | IV | B | |
147 | Godber Ford G | AMC | Sunbeam | 347 | IV | B |
148 | Eighteen GE | AMC | Matchless | 347 | IV | B |
151 | Meier RR | Triumph | 343 | IV | B | |
152 | Champers FV | Royal Enfield | 346 | IV | B | |
155 | Bryant JH | Ariel | 348 | IV | B | |
156 | Davies Sgt O | War Office | Matchless | 347 | IV | B |
158 | Clayton R | Triumph | 343 | IV | B | |
160 | Breffitt JE | Norton | 348 | IV | B | |
162 | Bufte JS | Panther | 349 | IV | B | |
163 | Booker JJ | Royal Enfield | 346 | IV | B | |
166 | Edge C | AMC | Matchless | 347 | IV | B |
167 | Bates CR | BSA | 348 | IV | B | |
170 | Bennett CE | Matchless | 247 | IV | B | |
171 | Wilkinson R | Panther | 348 | IV | B | |
174 | Hall LEC | Rudge | 499 | III | F | |
211 | Ashworth J | BSA | BSA | 249 | II | A |
219 | Whittle FH | Panther | 598 | III | F | |
222 | Guildford BA | Matchless | 350 | IV | B | |
237 | Hitchcock JA | Triumph | 249 | II | A | |
249 | Flook HJ | Norton | Norton | 596 | III | F |
255 | Cottle Miss M | Triumph | 249 | II | A | |
274 | Fletcher F | Excelsior | 125 | I | 4 |
A more detailed list recording the riders, their teams can be found in this article.
#27 Len Heath Ariel 497cc
#52 Alan Jeffries Triumph 498cc
#64 Harold Tozer BSA 496cc
#81 F Povey Ariel 497cc
#108 WA West Ariel 497cc
#116 JH Arnott BSA 496cc
#132 H Slim Triumph 343cc
#135 GE Rowley AJS 347cc
#137 CM Rogers Royal Enfield 346cc
#147 G Godber Ford Sunbeam 347cc
#148 G Eighteen Matchless 347cc
#152 FV Chambers Royal Enfield 346cc
#211 J Ashworth BSA 249cc
#249 HJ Flook Norton 596cc
#255 Miss Marjorie Cottle Triumph 249cc
More photos to follow as we find them.. any help welcome…
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Stuart Black said:
Hi,
Wonderfull web page and fantastic pictures.Perhaps I can add something?I have a basket case competition BSA empire star from 1939 engine number KB 25171 frame KB 241383 supplied in 1939? To BSA cycle company Mr Cartwright.It appears to be a works machine?
We know a Mr Cartwright rode a 350 BSA competitively in 1937 however can not find either Mr Cartwright entered in the 1939 ISDT or any possible record of our machine in 1939 events.Perhaps Mr Cartwright stopped riding himself possibly through injury,Ill health or even perhaps anti German feelings in which case perhaps another rider maybe a BSA works youngster took his place?Perhaps it was not used and only found service fetching the tea from the corner shop?We have no history with the bike of this period.
Post war we have hearsay evidence of a competition life but no concrete dates if it was immediate post war or more like 1950’s or even early 1960’s and the story is unclear except that it was obviously used in competitive events and when I purchased the machine it still wore aluminium competition number plates both sides of the area below the saddle.Folklore says at one stage it was sand raced possibly at Kircaldy on the east coast of Scotland by ‘en ex triumph tt rider’ called we believe Arthur Fife.We have been unable to find anything about Arthur Fife and we understand he died a number of years ago.
Any help about Mr Cartwright’s entries in 1939 and afterwards could be usefull and anything identifying our machine would be very usefull??We plan to restore it to as near post war condition as possible but are at present hindered by the cylinder head and cylinder being missing?Possibly they were competition parts and were robbed to sell in earlier times of austerity as they were thought to be the only parts of value on the machine?
Any help would be gratefully received about our competition BSA empire star jigsaw.
My contact details are Stuart Black tel 07974750820 and we can always ring you back to save your cost.e mail stuart@quaysurface.co.uk
Best Regards. Stuart Black
iPø∂i$†å said:
The VMCC were running a project to find the interwar BSA six day bikes and you should find a blog on the request they sent. I will see what I have and pass it on.