Given his occupation, readers will not be surprised by the title the Reverend John Lines MBE has have given this article, but he will now set the scene for you…
In a previous article (Readers Tales, OBM485) I wrote about my beautiful Triumph Thunderbird that I have managed to get returned to the condition it was in when I ride it during the 1960s in the police. Now, some people would say that one Triumph is enough – but not for this old chap!
Back in 1970, an organisation called the Auxiliary Omnibus Association was looking for a home for its London General Omnibus AEC B type double decker bus, fleet number B43. The Association had been set up by the men who took such buses over to France in the First World War and, over the years, the vehicle had taken part in a great many events of remembrance, etc.
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Readers will appreciate that by 1970 age – both of the vehicles and the veterans – was starting to play an important part in people’s thinking and attempts were being made to find a forever home for the lovely old bus. Eventually the Imperial War Museum at Kennington in south London agreed to house the bus and plans were made for a ceremonial handover of the vehicle.
At this point yours truly enters the story! I received a telephone call from my duties sergeant at my garage saying that I was just the man for a particular escort that they had been approached to cover. I should perhaps mention at this point that, besides my beloved Triumph motorcycles, I am also a great fan of buses built by Guy Motors of Wolverhampton and have owned a number of such vehicles over the years. With this in mind, the sergeant felt that I really ought to be the officer doing the escort of an old bus on one of my Triumphs. Give that, how could I refuse such a wonderful task?
Thus, on April 30, 1970, I presented myself at Streatham bug garage where the old B type was kept, riding a Triumph Saint (AMM 955H) which had been loaned to me by a fellow officer who was part of a specialist group of Metropolitan Police motorcyclists who escorted royalty and various dignitaries at special events and occasions. I was threatened with dire consequences if I damaged the machine which was really immaculate!
The driver of the bus that day was George Gwynn who in honesty looked many years short of his admitted 80 years. The bus was to carry some other veteran bus drivers and a squad of London Scottish Territorials, representing those troops who had been conveyed by such vehicles to the battlefront. The run itself was a dream, not least for all the folk who had turned out to see our little cavalcade as we made our way to the museum.
Well, that was the end, you may be thinking… No way! Having the Thunderbird in my garage I mused a few years ago about trying to now find AMM 955H and restore it. Although the machine was shown as still being in existence, all my enquiries drew a blank. So that would be the end of that idea, then? Oh no. A chap contacted me from Cornwall saying he had an ex-Metropolitan Police Saint motorcycle which he would be happy to sell to me. I was serving at the Whitechapel Mission in the East End of London at the time and I made a trip down to Cornwall in the Mission’s van.
I have to say that I was disappointed when I first saw MLA 364L as it was laying at the bottom of a garden in a pretty poor state. However, after some negotiations, it was loaded into the van and returned to London.
Once again I was looking for bits for a Triumph. To start with I needed a pair of leg shields, pannier boxes, windscreen and small fairing, blue lights, police signs … the list get on growing! But therein lay my first mistake. I naturally thought it would be the same as AMM 955H but research proved me wrong – that batch of saints with the Metropolitan Police was fitted with full fairings. I think at this point I was starting to wish that I had not purchased that poor old Saint.
So it was a case of back to the drawing board as I amended my searching to look for the fairing, along with the other parts I needed. I was lucky and eventually MLA 364L (or 2633 ‘T’ as I now know it) was completed, thanks yet again to George Hopwood, and ready for the road.
Sometime later I received a telephone call from a Brigade of Guards’ officer asking if I would ride my ex-Police Triumphs in the procession at Horseguards Parade to celebrate the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. You cannot imagine the joy I felt as yours truly, riding my dearly loved Thunderbird, and a friend on the Saint drove around that hallowed area.
One other Metropolitan Police solo I would love to own is a Triumph Terrier. The Metropolitan Police ordered six of them to compare with LE Velocettes and, as you can imagine, the Velos won hands down with regard to engine noise. Just imagine riding around suburbia in the middle of the night with that exhaust on the Terrier! Enquiries have revealed that all six of the Terriers (which bore the prefix RLE on their registration plates) are no longer on official records so I presume that they have all been scrapped. Thus it looks as if my searching for ex-Metropolitan Police Triumphs is now at an end.
