RAF Captain and motorcycling hero dies at 90

Group Captain Stafford Coulson, one of British motorcycling’s most fascinating characters, has died at the age of 90.

Coulson, an RAF Pathfinder pilot during the Second World War, starting racing bikes in the 1930s and was one of the few to wear a Gold Medal for lapping Brooklands at over 100mph, despite riding a low-powered 350 BSA.

After the war he led a squadron of Vulcan V-bombers, became a Queen’s messenger in the Diplomatic Corps (secreting hard-to-find Japanese bike spares in his diplomatic bag on flights from Japan to the UK) and was instrumental in forming the RAF Motor Sports Association that helped RAF personnel go racing.

Coulson went on to personally sponsor some of Britain’s best riders of the 1970s and 1980s, including 1986 Superstock champion Kenny Irons, Ray Swann, Roger Hurst, Jim Wells, Mike Trimby, Asa Moyce and Marty Lunde, one of the first Americans to contest GPs in Europe.