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Pow's In Ww2-speedway Riders

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Was thinking about this the other day. Two come to mind- Harry Edwards , who I thought because of his terrible experiences looked older than his age, although he kept riding thru 1963 I think. Maybe ended up with Wolves and also think he may have been the younger brother of Bert Edwards. The other is "The Champ" Howdy Byford who I do remember seeing ride. In the late fifties or early sixties the Star serialised his memoirs. I think he was born in 1919 and kept on riding into the mid sixties.- I think I saw him ride for Hackney and Kings' Lynn.

Were there other ex POW's riding and does anyone recall the two I mentioned-am relying on other forum landers of my approximate age(102) to post to this -ok ok I know you are younger than me Norbold and probably BL65 also!!!

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Think ex Wimbledon rider Alfred Rumrich was a POW in France

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Was thinking about this the other day. Two come to mind- Harry Edwards , who I thought because of his terrible experiences looked older than his age, although he kept riding thru 1963 I think. Maybe ended up with Wolves and also think he may have been the younger brother of Bert Edwards. The other is "The Champ" Howdy Byford who I do remember seeing ride. In the late fifties or early sixties the Star serialised his memoirs. I think he was born in 1919 and kept on riding into the mid sixties.- I think I saw him ride for Hackney and Kings' Lynn.

Were there other ex POW's riding and does anyone recall the two I mentioned-am relying on other forum landers of my approximate age(102) to post to this -ok ok I know you are younger than me Norbold and probably BL65 also!!!

 

Frank Lawrence, who rode for New Cross and Harringay in the late 1940s early 1950s, was a PoW in Germany for three and half years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lawrence

Edited by Guest

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Was thinking about this the other day. Two come to mind- Harry Edwards , who I thought because of his terrible experiences looked older than his age, although he kept riding thru 1963 I think. Maybe ended up with Wolves and also think he may have been the younger brother of Bert Edwards. The other is "The Champ" Howdy Byford who I do remember seeing ride. In the late fifties or early sixties the Star serialised his memoirs. I think he was born in 1919 and kept on riding into the mid sixties.- I think I saw him ride for Hackney and Kings' Lynn.

Were there other ex POW's riding and does anyone recall the two I mentioned-am relying on other forum landers of my approximate age(102) to post to this -ok ok I know you are younger than me Norbold and probably BL65 also!!

An interesting point about Harry Edwards is that he started with Wolves and ended with Wolves. His first team, in 1949, was Walthamstow Wolves and he ended his career at Wolverhampton Wolves in 1964. The 1950s Wolverhampton team was the Wasps, which of course was the nickname taken by a certain Welsh team in 1964.

 

I recall reading that Len Read, formerly of Norwich, Plymouth and Liverpool, was also a prisoner of war, working on the Death Railway in Burma and Thailand.

Edited by BL65

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I was told several times in the late 1950s that the post-war German star Josef Seidl when in the army during WW2 was captured by the Russians and spent some years in a PoW camp.

I emphasise that I have never been able to substantiate or get a denial of this matter. If any BSF member can provide the needed information I would be extremely grateful.

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Was thinking about this the other day. Two come to mind- Harry Edwards , who I thought because of his terrible experiences looked older than his age, although he kept riding thru 1963 I think. Maybe ended up with Wolves and also think he may have been the younger brother of Bert Edwards. The other is "The Champ" Howdy Byford who I do remember seeing ride. In the late fifties or early sixties the Star serialised his memoirs. I think he was born in 1919 and kept on riding into the mid sixties.- I think I saw him ride for Hackney and Kings' Lynn.

Were there other ex POW's riding and does anyone recall the two I mentioned-am relying on other forum landers of my approximate age(102) to post to this -ok ok I know you are younger than me Norbold and probably BL65 also!!!

Remember both of these. You are quite right about Harry Edwards looking old. I was quite shocked when I first saw him and wondered how someone that old could still be riding league Speedway. Of course it was his time as a Japanese POW which was the reason. I knew a few other guys who had also been prisoners of the Japanese and almost all of them looked aged far beyond their years. Not sure but I think he rode for Rayleigh at the time.

 

Howdy Byford was a wonderful character. Got to know him when he was Weymouth team manager. Tremendous company and a kindly guy inside a real hard nut coating. Classic incident when the riders of both teams got into a mass brawl on the track which was sorted by Howdy, Pete Lansdale and Lew Coffin in about 2 seconds flat. Pretty sure he was a plumber by trade.

 

Reminds me of how much we owe that particular generation.

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