Mrs Louie McLean, Douglas Works Rider

At the height of her competitive motorcycling career during the 1920's and into the 30's, Louie McLean rode for Douglas as well as James and BSA. In those days Douglas were probably the biggest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world which may not be surprising in itself for a British firm of that era, but what is surprising is that the firm was located a fair distance from the West Midlands where most of the components for engineering work were produced. In Kingswood, near Bristol they made everything in-house on a very large site which still exists today, now housing a number of enterprises in the old Douglas factory.

The reason I give this potted history of Douglas is that it is important to our story which extends beyond the bike into the higher echelons of sporting history and the high point of female involvement in motorcycling. We need to go back to 1927, the year that this Douglas was manufactured. Women competed alongside the men in many aspects of motor sport, until they became very successful and were increasingly banned from competition by the ACU! One particular successful lady was possibly the most famous of all female riders, Faye Taylour. She was a champion motorcyclist and was a Douglas factory rider. Increasingly banned from competition, she went to Australia to follow her love of speedway, where talent was appreciated, no matter the sex. In the UK, the only area of motorcycle sport open to women was trials riding. In 1927 Great Britain selected two teams for the International Six Day Trials, one composed entirely of men and the other of women. The three women won the International Vase Trophy and became the superstars they are recognised to be today. Those women were Edyth Foley, Marjorie Cottle, then a well known film star as well, and Louie McLean. Misses Foley and Cottle are well documented in their careers, but Mrs McLean was   widely recognised as the finest trials rider of her day – bar none! Unfortunately her place in history has almost been erased but for the efforts of a few. And what has that to do with a shed in remote highland Perthshire?

What we did know for some time was that there was an older lady who displayed a 1927 Douglas 350 Sport at one or two rallies in Perthshire. Her father was George McLean, a motorcycle and car dealer in Dundee. This lady told us that the bike was one that her mother rode “to work”. We  subsequently found out that George was also a Douglas factory rider in the 1920's and 30's and married Louie McLean, then known as Louie Ball. Louie rode a 1927 Douglas EW350 Sport in the 1927 ISDT winning Silver Vase Team and lost a total of 0 points!

During 2012 we were asked to work on the Douglas. What would you think? What if it was the ISDT vase winning bike? A truly historic machine in every sense of the phrase. We  didn't really know one end of a Douglas from the other and realised that we would need help and so joined the London Douglas Motorcycle Club before we even got the bike. The LDMCC were really brilliant and we are ever grateful to them for their expertise.  They explained how the bike was not all Douglas, where it was not original and it's lack of provenance where we assumed otherwise. We remain in touch with the LDMCC and remain as members despite not having the bike. That is because they are interesting, produce a good magazine  and support a cause well worth supporting - to retain, preserve and promote the engineering heritage of Britain.