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Jim Kempster's Velocette Ktd


julian57

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Thanks to all who have posted so far and we are on the right track heading for the From Cinders to Shale link. We therefore appear to be closing in.

 

Jim wasn't the one of the great riders of all time but was the first England team captain. From scrapbook of 1930's press cuttings passed to my wife from her family he was never the same after a nasty crash and left the sport mid 30's.

 

Fortunately, for the brief time he was near the top his constant smile earned him his nickname 'Smiling' Jim and my wife and her mum are proud of him..so thanks for all the assistance in locating his Velocette.

 

He enlisted at the start of the second world war and ferried planes to airfields.

 

Sadly, in ferrying a plane to Germany, just after the war his plane hit cables and he was killed.

 

We will update when we know more but thanks to all again.

 

WITW! I would like to add that the apparently successful hunt for the "missing" Jim Kempster 1930 Velocette Ktd follows some investigative work by one of the sites in my signature :rolleyes: and some excellent back-up from BSF contributor Dutch. It seems possible this little saga will be wrapped up, as Julian hopes, in the next 24 hours. WITW!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Julian57,

Did your wife get any of the memorabilia that Jim's brother Archie had at his home Nr Leighton Buzzard.

 

I knew Archie when I lived in Leighton Buzzard, and went to his home and he showed me all the Trophy's and scrap books of Archie and Jim's time in Speedway, there were loads of items and I wondered what happened to them when Archie passed away

Edited by Team Man
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WITW! I would like to add that the apparently successful hunt for the "missing" Jim Kempster 1930 Velocette Ktd follows some investigative work by one of the sites in my signature :rolleyes: and some excellent back-up from BSF contributor Dutch. It seems possible this little saga will be wrapped up, as Julian hopes, in the next 24 hours. WITW!

 

 

WITW! The update on my quoted post is that Julian has established that there is a Velocette Ktd at the speedway bike collection in Scotland. What still needs to be verified is if the bike is Jim Kempster's. In all probability it is - but provenance has still to be established by the collection's curator. This could take longer than the 24 hours previously anticipated by one of the site's in my signature :rolleyes: , Julian and myself. But the trio are involved with the museum curator on cross-checking the origins of the Velocette. WITW!

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  • 5 years later...

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