Canadian 80th Militia Motorcycle 1908

centurion · #1 06-10-05, 18:58

Does any one have or know the wherabouts of any illustration of the Maxim armed (but unarmoured) Harley Davidson Motorcycle side car combination belonging to the Canadian 80th Militia in 1908? Was this a one off?

servicepub (RIP) · #2 06-10-05, 19:19

I would dearly love to find a photo also. What I have discovered is that Sgt Northover of the 90th (Winnipeg) {Note - not 80th} had former service in the British Army before coming to Canada. I Canada he joined the Cdn Ordnance Corps prior to joining the 90th - now the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.
Northover was an early volunteer for the First World War and was well into his 30s. He survived the war, came out as a Captain and had been awarded the Military Cross.
I am looking for information on the Simplex ServicCycle in the WWII Canadian Army also. All data will be used in an upcoming book on motorcycles in the Canadian Army.

centurion · #3 07-10-05, 11:58

What little info I have suggests that H R Northover was Quatermaster Sergeant and Armourer. One wonders if, with this background he had anything to do with the Northover projector of WW2? It was introduced to the UK Home Guard in 1940. He would have been in his late 50s about then (and if he had returned to the UK probably in the Home Guard). After all the Blacker Bombard of the same period was developed by an ex Indian Army officer called Blacker so having this weapon produced by an ex Canadian army officer called Northover does not sound too unlikely. I was digging into this weapon's history a few months back (for something I'm writing) and although finding some interesting info (including a Soviet made copy!) could find nothing on who its inventor was. Do you have any information that might indicate its the same Northover?

centurion · #4 07-10-05, 12:45

Answering my own question - I think it must be the same man. In 1919 a Canadian Major H R Northover (obviously he got higher than Captain) won the Silver cross of the British National Rifle Association at Bisley. There is still a Major Northover competition at Bisley to this day. In 1938 the same guy won a major (no pun intended) UK clay pigeon shooting competition. The enclosed link takes one to a photo of the man himself http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...g=3&imagepos=2
Just look at all those shooting medals. The archives of the TUC in 1948 contain a paper written by Hugh Dalton (Chancelor of the Exchequer in the Atlee government) giving recollections of Major H R Northover who is described as a gunnery expert (unfortunately there is no online access to this).
I'd definitely like to find a shot of the bike in question.

servicepub (RIP) · #5 07-10-05, 14:45

Northovers Attestation Papers are available on-line. If you do a search in the Archives photographs section you will also find a group photo of the Staff, Canadian Small Arms Inspection & Repair Depot, East Greenwich. Northover is one of the officers shown but it is difficult to determine exactly which one he is.

servicepub (RIP) · #6 07-10-05, 15:02

In 1910 Northover submitted a proposal to the Department of Militia and Defence (Canada) for a "Non-Slip Pawn".
Not sure what this is but will call up the file.

centurion · #7 07-10-05, 15:02

Thanks
Looking at the two pictures I think Northover must be the officer standing on the right hand (as you look at the photo) end of the back row. What on earth is the boy scout sitting at the other end doing? A very young armaments experet?

servicepub (RIP) · #8 07-10-05, 16:14

I thought so also but the caption identifies him as a Captain while the officer shown is a Lieutenant.

David_Hayward (RIP) · #9 07-10-05, 22:51

My father in law who passed away in March aged 81, was FREDERICK ERNEST NORTHOVER, who of course landed in Canada in 1942 under the Empire Scheme and then passed out as a Pilot Officer. His father was in WW1 and Fred showed me his father's Bisley trophies for shooting! He died about 30 years ago aged 90 or 91..HARRY NORTHOVER was his name. After WW1 he was in charge as a civil servant of the Solent forts off Gosport, living in Stokes Bay, Gosport, Hampshire. He might have been in the Home Guard in Gosport..Fred was before he volunteered for the RAF when he was a bank clerk [yes, a case of Pikey from Dad's Army!!].

centurion · #10 08-10-05, 00:32

We're probably moving away from softskins but I still find it all fascinating. One piece of fog clears to reveal another. In my searches I've found referenceces to P Officer F E Northover and perhaps his father Harry Northover was the man who invented both the armed motor cycle and the Home Guards' own artillery. It isn't that unusual to find families who drift back and forth from North America over the generations. My Lincolnshire grandmothers family seem to have done this ever since the little misunderstanding at the end of the eighteenth century, the last lot having arrived in Canada via Argentina! One member of a much earlier generation apparently having dined at the White House when the president was avoidably absent. To confuse matters I've found references to two! Northovers having won the Military Cross with a Winnipeg regiment in WW1 one a Major H R Nothover and the other a Lt A W Northover (a family business perhaps).

David_Hayward (RIP) · #11 08-10-05, 14:47

I don't think my wife's paternal grandfather had any connection with Canada...although his other son Francis (Frank) Northover was assigned to radar work in the war and carried nominal RNVR rank whn on trials. Frank became a Maths professor and emigrated post-war to Ottawa.