DESPATCH RIDER

The Despatch Rider was made by Dreng & Co of Fern Road, Erdington, Birmingham, from 1915 to 1917 and, as those dates and the name might suggest, it was built for use by the British Army on the frontline of the theatres of war. While mention of military motorcycles of the First World

War will bring to mind Douglas, Triumph and Phelon & Moore (the latter exclusively used by the Royal Flying Corps), many marques produced models for wartime use, but Dreng and its Despatch Rider may be unique in that it didn’t build machines pre-war and appears to have gone into business for the sole purpose of constructing a military motorcycle.

The Despatch Rider had a 211cc Pecos or 269cc Villiers engine with Brampton, Saxon or Druid forks and each was finished in khaki livery. It was a small machine, something which the company claimed as a bonus for ‘neatness and convenience’ and its brochure even showed a machine being carried by its rider, which might be seen as a slight upon its reliability!

As the Despatch Rider was produced in a ladies’ version

(one would imagine there wasn’t a vast call for such a model on the battlefield), it may be that the model was intended for public sale once the war was over. Unfortunately, the Despatch Rider ceased production a year before the end of that conflict. It is now an extremely rare machine with only one we know of in existence. A ladies’ model (the only difference appears to be the dropped top tube to accommodate a long skirt), it was offered in the Bonham’s sale at Stafford some 10 years ago. We haven’t seen one since.

This 1916 ladies’ model Despatch Rider was rescued from a Birmingham scrap merchant’s cart in 1961 by John Diamond, who subsequently restored it. It was sold by Bonhams in 2011 for £5250 and is believed to be the only surviving example of the make.