Today Is Another Classic Centenary

[laird387]

Tuesday 31 May 2016 marks the Centenary of the loss during the Battle of Jutland in the First World War of Admiral Robert Keith Arbuthnot, Bt., KCB., MVO who went down with his flagship in this largest sea battle of the century.

 

Also lost was his motorcycle, which, as an Admiral, he was privileged to take on board with him. In his earlier years (he was only 52 years old when he died) as a Lieutenant he had regularly ridden his motorcycle in competitions and, as a recognition of this there was a regularity trial for naval officers created in the 1920s which ran for several years until it was finally abandoned as an event in 1929.

 

Many years later, whilst negotiating with a farmer for the purchase of a veteran Riley car which was 'recumbent' in a barn, Ian Rennie succeeded on the condition that before he took the car away he arranged to clear all the rubbish out of the barn so that the farmer could have the use of the barn again!

 

In that rubbish was a trunk with assorted papers, amongst which were a set of route and regulations for the trial for naval officers.......

 

Ian contacted me, and we spent several years working out exactly where the route had run in the 1920s, long before many of the local roads had been dualled, then converted to modern standards, we needed vastly useful help from the local County Surveyors and Archivists, followed by interesting discussions with the many landowners in the area of the route.

 

The result was the recreation of that old trial, now known as the Arbuthnot Trial, which has achieved a popularity of its own amongst classic enthusiasts and runs to this day under the welcome stewardship of Mick and Mary Rye of the Salisbury club.  I can recommend it as a good day out for the classic enthusiast.