Motorcycle History: Heroes and Helmets

In the opening scene of the 1962 movie, Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is speeding along a country road on a motorcycle, sans helmet, when he swerves to avoid two bicyclists and is ejected over the handlebars. The camera focuses on his riding goggles, dangling from a roadside bush and then the scene cuts to his funeral whereupon the story of T E Lawrence and his exploits in the Arabian desert is told. The real T E Lawrence, though, was in a coma for five days with a fractured cranium at Bovington Camp Military Hospital while specialists, such as neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns, were brought in from around the country to try and save his life, to no avail. Lawrence was 47 when he died in that 1935 accident, and the Brough Superior motorcycle he was riding, a gift from playwright George Bernard Shaw, now sits on display in a British museum.

Early in the Second World War, Dr. Cairns noticed the high mortality in motorcycle despatch riders as a result of head injuries. According to Maj Neil Walker, Trauma and Orthopedics, Queen Margaret Hospital, “Cairns felt that many of these deaths were largely attributable to the lack of protective headwear worn at the time of the injury. Cairns published his observations in the BMJ, noting that over 2000 motorcyclists and pillion passengers were killed in Britain in the first 21 months of the war, with head injuries the most common cause of death.” With physicist  A Holbourn, according to Walker, “Cairns began to research different types of crash helmet, using as a basis those worn by racing motor cyclists. Between them, they eventually produced a helmet that was adopted by the Army.  

Cairns used his influence at the War Office, and the wealth of evidence from his research to persuade the Army of the benefit of helmets. The wearing of crash helmets became mandatory for Army motorcyclists in 1941…. An immediate reduction in fatalities was the result. In his paper of 1946, Crash Helmets, Cairns concluded that the ‘adoption of a crash helmet as standard wear by all civilian motorcyclists would result in considerable saving of life, working time, and the time of hospitals.’ The compulsory wearing of crash helmets by civilian motorcyclists did not become law in the UK until 1973, but much of the credit lies with this tireless work by Cairns.” To view the opening scene from the 1962 movie with Peter O'Toole in the lead role, check out the post on my profile page. It seems such a strange and somewhat banal end to one who had been through so much danger and exotic adventure, which you realize after you watch the entire movie and learn more about Lawrence's life. It also highlights the risk of riding without good protective head gear and speeding, a lethal combination for anyone as it was for legendary hero T E Lawrence.