My grandfather was a "Horse Driver" in the Army Service Corps (ASC) during WW1. His job was to deliver supplies to the front line and if he ever came under fire he had to protect the horses... He served in Turkey and the Middle East, took plenty of shrapnel hits and suffered malaria, but he survived to tell the tales. He also told me that he delivered bicycles too, for the soldiers who went to war on bikes, and he shared a tent with bicycle dispatch riders too. No multi-geared full-sussers for this lot, nor chunky tyres or disc brakes, just plain old John Bull tyres, single speed, rod brakes and if you were lucky, a sprung saddle. So, I was chuffed to bits when I came across these vintage images of military cyclists from the 1914-18 war bringing some of my old grandpa's tales to life.
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