A photograph, a name, and a mystery
For most of my life I knew very little about my grandfather Walter Upton. He died before I was old enough to form a proper relationship with him, and the family had not thought to write much down. What I had was a photograph: a smiling man in a light suit, sitting astride a motorcycle on a Nottingham street, looking pleased with himself. He was the kind of person you feel you should have known.
The motorcycle became a research thread. The registration plate in the photograph, VO 8451, is visible in sharp detail. Registration VO placed the vehicle in Nottingham, and the number sequence placed its first registration in the late 1930s. I noted it and moved on.
Years later, searching digitised newspaper archives for Walter Upton in connection with other parts of his story, I found two reports that I was not expecting. On 22 and 23 July 1940, both the Nottingham Evening Post and the Nottingham Journal covered a case at Nottingham Guildhall involving a stolen motorcycle. The victim was named as Mr Walter Upton, of 12 Rockford Road, Nottingham. The motorcycle had been left in the car park of the Fox Hotel on Valley Road on the morning of 8 June 1940. It had been taken by a soldier.
The context: June 1940
To read this story properly, you need to understand what June 1940 meant. The British Expeditionary Force had been withdrawn from Dunkirk at the end of May. Around 338,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated across the Channel in nine days. The men who came home were, by turns, traumatised, relieved, celebrated and confused. Britain was braced for invasion.
William Clarkson, the man who took my grandfather's motorcycle, was one of those returning soldiers. He was 28 years old, had been in the regular army since December 1931, and had served in France and Belgium with the BEF. His commanding officer, who appeared in court to speak in his favour, described him as reliable and very smart, and said that on two occasions in Belgium he had performed commendably. At Dunkirk he had been very good in taking wounded towards the boats.
On the morning of 8 June 1940, he came across a motorcycle in the car park of the Fox Hotel on Valley Road. My grandfather had left it there. Clarkson said later that he used to be a dispatch rider, and believed he could ride it. He had had a considerable amount of drink.
What happened to the motorcycle
After Clarkson took the machine, my grandfather noticed it was gone. He reported it missing. The police traced it to St Annes-on-Sea in Lancashire. Parts of it were missing. Clarkson was found at the police station in Horncastle on Saturday, 20 July 1940, where a detective travelled to see him.
Clarkson told police he had been given the cycle for sale by a cricketer, who had asked one pound for it. He was prepared to pay for anything that was missing, though he said he had not disposed of anything himself. The detective, having heard his account, presumably found it unconvincing.
At Nottingham Guildhall on 22 July 1940, Clarkson pleaded guilty to three offences: stealing a motor cycle worth twenty-five pounds, driving without a licence, and driving without an insurance policy. The court heard the character evidence from his officer and, taking his war record into account, applied the Probation Act to the theft charge. He was ordered to pay two pounds in damages and was disqualified from driving a private motor vehicle for twelve months.
The newspaper reports: full transcriptions
Both reports are transcribed below in full, as published. The Evening Post reported on the day of the hearing. The Journal carried a more detailed account the following morning. Together they give a clear picture of the proceedings and the people involved.
