The London Cyclist Battalion. A Chronicle of Events Connected with the 26th Middlesex (Cyclist) V.R.C., and the 25th (C. of L.) Cyclist Battalion, The London Regiment, and Military Cycling in General - A. S. Clark (editor) 1932 - Published for The 25th London (Cyclist) Old Comrades' Association by Forster Groom &, London - First Edition The thirty-three years from 1887 to 1920 witnessed the conception, birth, growth, adolescence, and premature death of military cycling (as distinct from mere despatch riding) in the British Army.

This scarce work provides a history of military bicycling in the British Army, chronicling the events of the 26th corp., and it’s successor the 25th battalion, including their campaigns in Waziristan, India in 1917, the third Afghan War of 1919, the Amiritsar uprising in 1919, and in Mesopotamia.

Illustrated throughout with photographic plates.
  For the first twenty of these years, the 26th Middlesex (Cyclist) Volunteer Corps was `the only unit in Britain devoted entirely to the development of cyclist tactics. They were employed on an intermittent basis during the South African War - whilst they were not deployed as organised combat formations, the bicycle was found to be invaluable for reconnaissance and communications work, being lighter, quieter, and logistically much easier to support than horses.

During the next seven years, its successor, the 25th (Cyclist) Battalion, The London Regiment, was in the forefront of the movement, with the first battalion's WW1 service undertaken in India and the North West Frontier. In 1917 they participated in the Waziristan Campaign, and in 1919 they helped quell the Amritsar uprising, and participated in the 3rd Afghan War. In 1917, 200 of the 1/25th left India and fought in Mesopotamia. Most of the Battalion did not return home until December 1919. All without their beloved bicycles. On conversion to infantry, it retired to permit its Second Line, already over a year old, to carry on the tradition almost to the 31st March, 1920, when cyclist units, as such, ceased to exist in the British Army.

Provenance: From the Estate of Daniel R. Davis of Seattle, Washington.

Octavo, pp. xi, 292. light blue cloth, lettered in gilt.
  Condition: Very good, minor rubbing to corners and spine ends, light soiling to boards, internally clean.   Ref: 105206   Price: HK$ 2,500