On This Day, 11 January 1917

Birmingham Mail

Thursday 11 January 1917

SOLDIER AND A BICYCLE

” BUILT IT BEFORE THE WAR.”

At the Birmingham Police Court today, the Stipendiary committed for trial the Sessions James Briscoe (24), private in the Warwickshire Regiment, formerly a labourer, of 264, Icknield Port Road, charged with stealing a bicycle (see On This Day 5 January 1917 for another mention of James Briscoe).

The cycle was the property James Henry Best, 8, Icknield Square, and had been left for a few minutes in an entry off Augusta Street on the 8th September. The same day prisoner sold a machine to a dealer in Icknield Street, who stated that Briscoe represented himself as a wounded soldier with a pension of 4s. 8d. a week, and said he had been out of work for a fortnight and wanted money to pay the rent. Asked if he had receipt for the purchase of the cycle, he replied, “No,” adding, “I built it myself before the war.” Prisoner was arrested at Cheltenham by Detective Sterry on another charge the 29th ult.