aye Ernest Donsky, far better known by his sobriquet Kaye Don, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1891, to Polish parents. Educated in England, Kaye was more interested in motorcycles than academia and gained employment with the Avon Rubber Company in Melksham, Wiltshire, using his first pay packets to acquire a motorcycle. Avon of course was closely connected with the motorcycling scene, both as a supplier of a large range of road and off-road tyres, and later for its highly successful road racing tyres which scored extensive success at Grand Prix level. His ambitions on both fronts were interrupted by the First World War, and he joined the Royal Flying Corps where he trained as a pilot. At war’s end he resumed his interest in motorcycling, but
