Australian Military Registration C7120

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Rich Payne

Are the AWM able to look up individual enquiries or will anyone else be there at some point and able to look this one up for me ?

It's not a pressing need but these small things sometimes help to build up the big picture.

Cheers,

Rich

Afraid you'll have to go there yourself, or ask someone else who is going there to check for you. Also you need to notify the research centre in advance so they can get the book out for you. Tony may have a better idea of which of the series of ledgers you'll need to ask for.

[Tony Smith]

C7120 will be found in AWM 126-05. Next time I'm there I will check it out, but if someone gets there before me, that's the book to look for.

The number of documents and references the AWM Research Centre holds is bordering on the massive, ranging from personal diaries and letters through to Battalion War Diaries and Official Histories. I can understand the need to pre-request documents as some are now stored off site, but sometimes you will find info that will need to be checked in another source, and the trail goes cold because that reference is not at hand. For possible example, you might find that 7120 has a cross reference to an AIF number and you want to look at that, but the book is held off site. AIF registrations are in AWM 126-01, -02, -03, -04.

Just the vehicle registration details alone covers 27 books and nearly 200,000 vehicles. This would be a huge task to digitise from a hand written ledger with lots of scrawled notations.

[Rich Payne]

Thanks Chaps. Tony, if you are able to look up that number at some time in the future I'd be ever so grateful - and also if you could see what was either side of it i.e. if it was a large contract.

I fully understand the difficulties of ploughing through pages of handwritten ledgers. The Norton Owners Club have been endeavouring to compile a database for years using volunteers but it's still not accessible.

I have found a reference to the supply of eight military spec machines with Vokes Air Filter to 'Disney' which I have listed as a pre-war Australian agent for Nortons (in Victoria ? would that be a significant location ?). There does not seem to have been any one Norton agent for Australia as the name Tozer Kemsley & Milburn often appears for other areas.



These may not be the correct bikes as they refer to 38/16H and the one in the picture has the 1937 spec engine (which the WD carried on using).

In answer to Jan's query, I have nothing on Australian use of Enfields but I have got a pencilled note in the back of my old copy of 'British Forces Motorcycles' to the effect that the Canadians were supplied with 250 WD/Cs + 236 further in lieu of Triumphs undelivered due to enemy action. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read that information so you'll have to treat it as uncorroborated. I know that Triumph did have supply problems after the blitzing of Coventry so it does seem possible that alternatives were sought.