Martin ShelleyMartin Shelley, VMCC Blackburne and OEC Marque specialist, and Nick Shelley, secretary of the Marston Sunbeam Club & Register, are both vintage motorcycle enthusiasts and amateur historians of the early motor industry.

The Shelley brothers dscovered the Burney brothers' photograph albums and medals in an auction, and quickly realized they featured in the classic Adventures of a Despatch Rider by W.H.L. Watson. Critically, the captions and names written on the backs of some pictures in the album helped them to identify the 12 despatch riders whose exploits Watson had written about.

They have used these striking pictures to illustrate the book, which also seeks to place Watson's thoughtful memoirs into a wider context through further detailed research. Over the course of six years they have found the despatch riders' families, unearthed unpublished material written by other members of the unit, read the war diaries and Watson's correspondence with his publisher, and visited France and Belgium, where they followed the tracks of the despatch riders from Mons to the Aisne, and then to Flanders.

The pictures and information they have uncovered are used here to enrich the original text, and to paint a fuller picture of the experiences of the early despatch riders in 1914 and beyond. Read More Read Less