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Monday, June 24, 2013

Who was the woman on that old Royal Enfield?

Ole Kragh's mother rode a Royal Enfield before World War II.
My best efforts to identify the Royal Enfield in Ole Kragh's photo of his mother as a young motorcyclist in Denmark suggested that it was a 1931-'35 Model J.

But who was the spirited woman on the motorcycle? Curious, I asked him to tell us more.

"Unfortunately I know nothing about the bike," he responded. "I do know that my mother, Grethe Eline Kragh... used it for riding from home to work in a period in her very young days.

"She was indeed a great spirit who didn't care too much about public opinion (nice girls did not ride motorbikes, especially back then).

"She was working as a nurse and in the years 1940 to '45 when Denmark was occupied by Germany she was busy helping hospitalized English and American paratroopers, escaping the Germans.

"After World War II she started up the scout movement for local kids, using a bomb shelter for clubhouse.

"Aged 40 in 1953 she gave birth to yours truly and in 2001 she drew her final breath."

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