Circulates throughout the world Established 1903

Archive photo: BSA's on St Helena - March 1958

“The latest motorcycles to join the ‘fleet’ are these three new BSAs pictured here with their respective owners, Mr RD Freese, Mr George le Breton and Mr Arthur Richards.

“There is plenty of hilly going in St Helena, with gradients ranging from 1-in-6 to 1-12, but with petrol at 3s-9d per gallon the motorcycle offers an inexpensive and very suitable form of transport.”

St Helena is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean and remains part of the British overseas territory. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, it quickly became an important stopping off point for Portugal’s vessels on their way to and from India, though the British would lay in wait for rich and reasonably easy pickings.

In 1659 the English East India Company took over the Island and built a fort. The Dutch briefly captured St Helena in 1673 but the British quickly took it back.

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte laid plans to capture the island – which was to prove somewhat ironic considering after his surrender to the British, it was on St Helena he was interned. He remained until his 1821 death and was buried on the island, though his body was returned 19 years later to France.

Rule was taken over by HMS Government in 1833 and then, in 1900, St Helena ‘welcomed’ the first of 6000 South African Boer prisoners. The influx increased the island’s population to an all time high of 9850.

The current Queen visited in 1947 (as Princess Elizabeth) while Prince Philip made a stop-off in 1957. Six years previous to Philip’s visit, St Helena recorded its one and only instance of export revenue exceeding import costs, mainly thanks to its flourishing flax industry.

At the time of the published picture, St Helena was being used to hold three Bahraini princes as prisoners of Great Britain. They were held on the island until 1960. Population, in 2008, was 4200.

Whether the three BSAs are still there giving service, who knows? All are C12s, the overhead valve 250cc machines with swinging arm frame introduced for 1956 and dropped for the 1959 season. The C12 represented the last in the long and proud line of ‘pre-unit’ 250cc BSAs – its replacement was the unit construction C15. The C12’s forerunner, the C11, was announced in 1939 and based on the 1938-implemented C10, a side-valve of adequate performance and basic specification – but tough. There was also de luxe model with foot-change gearbox (the C10 was hand-change). The C11 shared the C10 deluxe’s engine bottom half, gearbox and cycle parts, while the top half of the engine was a simple all-iron construction with alloy rocker box lid, thus making the valve gear fully enclosed.

Of course, BSAs 250s went back further, the much-loved ‘Round Tank’ which although perhaps not so well known as later BSAs (Gold Star and Bantam spring to mind) must be in the company’s top five best known models. Introduced in 1924, the two-speed Round Tank (or Model B) was joined by a three-speed ‘Wedge tank’ later on – between the two models, about 35,000 were manufactured.

The 1920s Model B variants, led to various side valve and overhead valve models in the 1930s – there were two 250cc models in the 18 model strong 1930 range, with the side valve B30-3 joined by the ohv B30-4. These continued, updated, revised and redesigned, and at times joined by other versions, including ‘hot’ Blue Star versions at various times. The Bs continued until being gradually phased out, in favour of the Cs – the 1940 range featured no 250cc with a B designation.

Post-WWII, the C10 and 11 both reappeared in the August 1945 announced 1946 range. Still with girder forks and rigid back ends, the models’ received telescopic forks in April 1946 while the speedo was also moved into the tank top – exactly a la the B31. Plunger suspension and four-speed gearboxes became options in 1951, with the plunger frame standardised for the C10L in 1954 – though it came with a three-speed gearbox. The C11G was not available with a rigid frame from 1955 onwards, while in 1956 the C10L finally gained a four-speed gearbox, while the C11G was replaced by the swinging arm C12. The 12 went in 1959, replaced by the C15, itself a machine to spawn a whole range of variations and provide sterling service for many, in the fine tradition of 250cc BSAs and like these on St Helena most likely did too.

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