An appreciation of Bill Harvell

I first met Bill Harvell in 1944 when I was thirteen, a schoolboy newly returned from wartime evacuation to a war-ravaged Portsmouth.  My brothers were keen cyclists and suggested that I should visit his small but colourful cycle shop at Hilsea.  I soon learned of Bill’s outstanding career as a British cyclist, he had represented our country at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles (image below) and in the Empire Games at Manchester in 1934, winning bronze medals at each.  Despite the considerable gap in our ages we became friends and throughout my life I have treasured that friendship and held him in high esteem.

Bill’s obituary in the cycling press said that “He encouraged countless youngsters who came into the sport after the war”.  I was lucky to be one of them.  He was a warm, interesting and welcoming man who greatly added to my appreciation of life.  The son of poor Dorset parents, Bill’s early years had been a constant financial struggle.  Despite the challenge he quickly reached the top in British cycling but he remained modest and unpretentious.

In the 1930s Bill time trialled and raced with Freddie Prince, who went on to found Rotrax  Cycles in 1945. Bill had shops in Poole and Southampton, he would cycle between the shops, which later became part of the Rotrax business.

Bill’s shop at Hilsea was a mecca for southern cyclists and was often full of enthusiasts listening to his well-told tales.  I got to know all of these stories and from afar could tell from his gestures which epic he was describing.  Perhaps the best was about an Isle of Man race which he managed to finish on a bike seriously wrecked by collision with the sandbags at Craig na Baa.  His audience sometimes included sailors from the Free French Navy at Portsmouth.  Bill spoke no French and used me as a translator in my schoolboy French.  What a challenge!

Several of us lads worked for Bill in the late 1940s on Saturdays and during school holidays.  He paid no wages but allowed generous access to his dump of smashed bikes and equipment. He was a good wheel builder and competent mechanic. In those days there was a huge shortage of cycling gear.  What was available was mostly pre-war, second-hand and beyond our means.  With the aid of 1930s French catalogues some of us constructed workable Simplex gears from bits and pieces.  We also salvaged chainsets with odd cranks, handlebar stems and seat pillars.  I found a pair of Jack Sibbit track bars which even then looked very obsolete!

When we started racing at the age of 14 there were plenty of events at Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth tracks.  There were time trials at various distances on local courses and an occasional massed start race on what became the Goodwood motor circuit.  In winter there were indoor roller competitions and even a race between runners and cyclists over a tough cross-country course on Portsdown Hill.  Bill was usually at track events and sometimes provided us with an old tandem which helped to liven the pace in training sessions at Alexandra Park.  Few of us could afford track bikes so we rode on stripped-down road machines.  On one occasion officials refused to let me take part because removal of my derailleur had left about an inch of spindle protruding beyond the track nut.  Bill came to the rescue with a hacksaw and offered to tidy up the projection.  This pacified the officials but left me protesting at the cost of a new spindle.  Smiling through gritted teeth Bill urged me to stop whining and to get on with the race but he finally offered to pay for a new item.