Beal: Second to none
Most people with even a passing interest in Queensland’s early motoring history will have heard the names James Howard and
Canada Cycle Company. Anyone associated with these firms in their early days was there at the ‘birth’ of Queensland motoring. One such person was Albert Edward Beal – early pedal cycle racer, motorcycle importer, President of the Queensland Motorcycle Club, and inaugural MTAQ board member.
Albert Beal was an early bicycle rider – many of the first motorists were. He was a keen and competitive track rider during the 1890s along with his brothers, Jim and Joseph. It was probably during this time that he met James Howard, also a keen Rockhampton pedal cyclist.
Born in Yorkshire, England, and emigrating with his family as a ten-year-old child to Rockhampton in 1877, Albert worked in a drapery from 1891 to 1897 before joining James Howard’s business as a salesman. In 1899 he started business on his own account as A.E. Beal selling bicycles, sporting goods and phonographs from a store in Denham Street, Rockhampton. Newspaper advertising of February, 1899 states he was selling ‘Swift’ branded bicycles, but by November he was reportedly assembling and selling ‘Centralia’ bicycles. The first mention of self-propelled machines comes from a November, 1901 newspaper report about the demonstration of a quadricycle in which the passenger sat in a seat over the front axle, and the rider sat astride the machine behind them. By the end of 1907, A.E. Beal was advertising ‘The Beal bicycle – manufactured for A.E. Beal’ and had also set up a shop in the nearby gold town of Mount Morgan. This business expansion continued and in May, 1909 his first Brisbane shop was opened at 367 Queen Street under the management of Mr H. Wilson, formerly of Bennett and Wood, Sydney. At this time they also proudly announced the arrival of the first consignment of Belgian Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal (FN) four cylinder motorcycles. Mr Beal and staff seemed to have no qualms referring to the make immediately as ‘Beal FN’. Soon after, they eagerly awaited a shipment of the single cylinder version. It is unknown if they arrived before the shipment of 3 ½ horsepower single cylinder ‘Beal Motor Cycles built by the Famous Abingdon-Ecco Motor Company of Birmingham, England’. Perhaps in acknowledgement of who actually did all the work in the manufacture, the name quickly changed to ‘Abingdon Beal’.
The combination of rebadged FN and Abingdon motorcycles, bicycles and gramophones was obviously selling well, as A.E. Beal moved into larger premises in the old Finney’s building on the corner of Edward and Adelaide Streets, Brisbane. In August, 1913, the arrival of stocks of 6 and 3 ½ horsepower models of single cylinder Rudge Multi motorcycles was announced.
In mid-December special mention was being made of sidecars being coupled to ‘the big Twin Zenith or large single Rudge passenger machines with the Gradua gears’. The lines were really becoming blurred when reports included the following: ‘In addition to the well-known Beal brand of motorcycles and bicycles, this firm holds the sole agencies for Queensland of the Rudge, Abingdon, FN, Villiers, and Zenith motorcycles’. During the same period, all motorcycles were also prefixed with the name Beal in most of the advertising. Early 1914 saw transfer of ownership of the Rockhampton store to Messrs Williams Ltd., and they acted as agents for Beal motorcycles and bicycles in that area (if you believe A.E. Beal’s advertising). By this time, advertising seems to concentrate on the Beal-Abingdon King Dick and Beal-Rudge machines.
On the 5th August, 1914 just hours after
Great Britain formally entered the War, a meeting of the Queensland Motorcycle Club under the Presidency of Albert Edward Beal voted unanimously to place the club’s services at the disposal of the Commonwealth military for the War effort, should the need arise in Australia. Meanwhile the sale of motorcycles continued unabated, and A.E Beal announced in December, 1914 the introduction into Queensland of ‘the Beal Big Four model, one of which is now prominently displayed in our front window’. Advertising later revealed these to be Precisions, probably sourced from A.G. Healing of Melbourne, who wholesaled them Australia-wide to the trade.