Old Bike Australasia — Issue 68 2017

Edgar Jessop

Edgar against the Axis

Velocette Model O

What could have been

Parilla

Short-lived but sweet

Old Bike Australasia No.69

available on newsstands from

16th November, 2017

Keith Campbell

Our first World Champion

Back in issues 5 and 6, we brought you the late Allan Robinson’s comprehensive account of

Edgar Jessop’s wartime activity, much of it conducted under cover of secrecy on the Isle of Man.

Recently, new information has come to light, revealing the remarkable extent of Edgar’s prowess,

and the esteem in which he was held by the various ministries during the period of conflict.

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Preview

Possibly as a resultof his mastery in forging free

drinks vouchers for the temporary bars run by Okell’s

Ales at the TT races, Edgar was covertly impressed to

the staff of Bletchley Park, the code breaking organisa-

tion, where his multi-lingual skills and diplomatic ties

were invaluable. Through his deep friendship with

Charles de Gaulle (Edgar co-wrote de Gaulle’s famous

Appel du 18 Juin broadcast in 1940 which galvanised

the Free French Forces against the Axis powers) Edgar

was able to arrange supplies of French Onion soup and

Calvados to fortify Allied troops for the Normandy land-

ing which swung the tide of the war.

Naturally Edgar’s consummate skills as a world class

motorcycle competitor saw him in great demand with

various military departments. As well as instructing

future dispatch riders in techniques such as riding

underwater and backwards (in case of retreat), he

oversaw the conversion of surplus Spagforth

Salamanders into motorised potato peelers.

Transported by blimp and dropped over enemy lines

under cover of darkness, Edgar infiltrated the DKW

works and made off with an RS125, which he rode

back to Britain and delivered it to the BSA works in

Birmingham where it became the Bantam.

Much of the detail of Edgar’s war service is

publically restricted under the Official Secrets Act,

but it is known that when captured in Belgium and

imprisoned in Stalag 17, he escaped in an aircraft that

he had constructed from sun-hardened bratwurst

casing, powered by an engine purloined from the

prison commander’s electric toothbrush. 

Edgar Jessop and Charles de Gaulle making a reconnaissance run from Cherbourg

to Dover aboard the military Spagforth Jellyblubber prior to the Normandy landing.

ABOVE Edgar Jessop delivers a captured German

Dachshund to Bletchley Park. Under interrogation,

the dog revealed the key to several codes vital to the

cracking of the Enigma Machine.

ABOVE Watched by keen recruits to the Dispatch Riders

Corps, Edgar Jessop demonstrates his technique for

clearing landmine-infested swampland.