Excelsior Motor Company

A deal to supply the Russian Imperial government with motorcycles ended with the revolution and Excelsior wound up with an excess inventory as a result.

The Walker family (father Reginald and son Eric) took over after World War I. R Walker & Sons of Tyseley, Birmingham had started as makers of ships lamps but in 1919 had made a range of motorcycles under the Monarch name to be sold by the London Department store Gamages.

Emerged from the Great Depression in a sound financial state, Excelsior commissioned Blackburne to design a 4-valve racing engine.

Excelsior did not officially contest the 1939 TT but a syndicate raced the previous year's machines as well as a prototype 500cc production racer.

Their major contribution to the war effort was the 98 cc (6 in3) Welbike, a small, collapsible motorcycle delivered in a pod by parachute, intended to be used by paratroops for 'rapid' movement around a battlefield.

But the company wasn't doing well and in the lean years following World War II racing and luxury machines were sidelined in favour of cheap two-stroke engines.

Britax, a car accessory company bought the name and produced limited numbers of Britax-Excelsior machines in the late 1970s.

The Head Office and Works address according to a 1962 edition (4/9/62) of the Talisman Twin 244cc and 328cc Running and Maintenance Instructions was Redfern Road, Tyseley Birmingham 11.