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Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 13 No.2 October 2016 32
The All Black Golden Sunbeam
The three-speed Golden Sunbeam was produced by John Marston’s firm, in
Wolverhampton, which had grown out of the Wolverhampton tinplate industry.
The cycle was available in an all-black finish, from 1913, with the frame lining done in
real gold leaf. The chain case, with its ‘Little Oil Bath’, was an especially distinctive
feature. A famous, pre-War customer was the composer, Sir Edward Elgar, who owned
more than one Sunbeam.
The basic design stayed in production for the following fifty years; the military
version of the cycle, with clips for a rifle to be slung, had the oil bath and gears removed
to reduce the possibility of a malfunction. Large quantities, finished in green, were made
for the French army, with smaller numbers, mainly in black or khaki, for the British.
(Picture from the Whitgift School Croydon excellent WW1 exhibition)
