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Famous plate BS 1 is coming home

BS 1 has changed hands after almost thirty years. It was owned by Billy Smart (Junior) of circus fame since 1972 and has now been transferred through us to Bill Spence of Kirkwall in Orkney to celebrate his firm's centenary. It is also, of course, Bill's initials.

Bill said: "Not only is the plate to mark 100 years of my shipbroking and stevedoring company John Jolly but also, I am glad to say, BS 1 is finally coming home to Orkney where it was first registered in 15 March 1904. I put it on my Jaguar XK8 on its 98th birthday this year and then looked through the old Orkney records in the Kirkwall Archive to establish its provenance. It was originally assigned to William MacLennan of Grainbank who held the registration for 8 years until 1912 when John McEwan, Rector of Kirkwall Grammar School, obtained it. Subsequently it was assigned to the Manager of the National Bank in Kirkwall, George Drever. Then in 1921 Charles Haydon of Lynnfield put the number on his new Crossley. Eight years later the number was in Victoria Street, Stromness when the car was owned by John Robert Cursiter; then, in early 1930 the Crossley bearing BS 1 was sold to John M.F. Groat of Moasound, Longhope. I first saw BS 1 on the old Crossley in JMF's coal store in the 1950's soon before it left Orkney to go to Sheffield where it was allocated to Bob Stanley."

Bill discovered in the Orkney records that BS 3 was actually the first number registered in Orkney on 21 January 1904. He also found out that the author, George Bernard Shaw was allocated BS 73 on 5 November 1908 and that the motorcycle champion Barry Sheen had BS 7 at one time. Bill himself already owns BS 15, BS 38, BS 43, BS 47 and BS 4747 and his late wife Margaret's grandfather owned BS 14.