A classic couple
Works trials rider Jack White (always known to friends as Jackie) was a star of the competition motorcycle scene in the 1920s and 1930s, a stalwart of the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) and the Scottish Six Days Trial (SSDT) riding a works Ariel.
After the Second World War, he met Gwen Wickham, 24 years his junior, and taught her to ride a motorcycle – she subsequently competed as one of only a small number of female competitors in the Scottish Six Days Trial in the 1950s, initially on a works-supported Francis-Barnett. They married in 1958, Gwen giving up her competition career to raise their two daughters, though the couple’s names remained involved in the motorcycle scene through to Gwen’s passing in 2018.
Against all odds
Jackie White was born in 1906. He was considered by many as the best smaller capacity trials rider of the pre Second World War period, riding his works Ariels to many successes, but during his childhood, such activity would have seemed very unlikely.
At an early age, Jackie contracted polio and his parents were told his life was likely to be short and painful. He spent a long time in the unfortunately named Treloar ‘Cripples Hospital’ in Alton Hampshire, inactive for two years, strapped to a bed with spinal and leg problems.
