Bill Spence has accumulated quite a collection of personalised number plates over the years, having managed to acquire BS 15, BS 38, BS 43, BS 47 and BS 4747. However, it was his acquisition of the elusive BS 1, which provided him with one of his happiest moments.

Bill, who lives in Orkney, was very happy to have purchased the plate so that he could bring it back to his home in Orkney, from where it originated over 100 years ago. He originally bought the plate to put on his Jaguar XK8, as it displays his initials, but then he decided to delve further into the history of the registration number.

He approached the Kirkwall Archive in Orkney and discovered that, in his own words; “It was originally assigned to William MacLennan of Grainbank who held the registration for eight 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.”

He continued, “Eight years later the number was in Victoria Street, Stromness when the car was owned by Robert Cursiter; then, in early 1930, the Crossley bearing BS 1 was sold to John M. F. Groat of Moasound, Longhope.”

Bill recalls, “I first saw BS 1 on the old Crossley in JMF’s coal store in the 1950s soon before it left Orkney to go to Sheffield, where it was allocated to Bob Stanley.”