English motorcycle racer.
He was the son of a Baronet, Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin and Lady Margaret Diana Chetwynd Birkin of Ruddington Grange, near Nottingham.
He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and in his university days he took a keen intererst in motorcycle racing. Racing under the nom de course of "Cantab", he rode a Cotton in the Amateur Tourist Trophy in 1924 and 1926, but crashed during the subsequent 1926 Senior TT, suffering grevious injuries which required a long convalescence.
He took up motorcycling seriously at Brooklands where he was considered a promising racer and a popular figure, owing to his invariable habit of wearing on the track a black silk shirt upon which was embroidered a white cat. In October 1926 Archie Birkin obtained a controlling interest in the McEvoy Motors Ltd. based in Derby. The company ceased trading two years after his death.
During an early morning practice session for the 1927 Isle of Man TT races, Archie Birkin, riding a 500c McEvoy motor-cycle, crashed fatally at Rhencullen after swerving to avoid a collision with a fish van being driven on open roads. The corner at Rhencullen on the A3 road where the accident occurred was named as 'Birkin's Bend'.
From 1928 onwards, practice sessions for the Isle of Man TT Races and Manx Grand Prix were held on closed public roads.
Archie's elder brother was Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, one of the famous "Bentley Boys", two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, who would lose his life six years later in consequence of an accident during the Tripoli Grand Prix.
He was the son of a Baronet, Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin and Lady Margaret Diana Chetwynd Birkin of Ruddington Grange, near Nottingham.
He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and in his university days he took a keen intererst in motorcycle racing. Racing under the nom de course of "Cantab", he rode a Cotton in the Amateur Tourist Trophy in 1924 and 1926, but crashed during the subsequent 1926 Senior TT, suffering grevious injuries which required a long convalescence.
He took up motorcycling seriously at Brooklands where he was considered a promising racer and a popular figure, owing to his invariable habit of wearing on the track a black silk shirt upon which was embroidered a white cat. In October 1926 Archie Birkin obtained a controlling interest in the McEvoy Motors Ltd. based in Derby. The company ceased trading two years after his death.
During an early morning practice session for the 1927 Isle of Man TT races, Archie Birkin, riding a 500c McEvoy motor-cycle, crashed fatally at Rhencullen after swerving to avoid a collision with a fish van being driven on open roads. The corner at Rhencullen on the A3 road where the accident occurred was named as 'Birkin's Bend'.
From 1928 onwards, practice sessions for the Isle of Man TT Races and Manx Grand Prix were held on closed public roads.
Archie's elder brother was Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, one of the famous "Bentley Boys", two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, who would lose his life six years later in consequence of an accident during the Tripoli Grand Prix.
English motorcycle racer.
He was the son of a Baronet, Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin and Lady Margaret Diana Chetwynd Birkin of Ruddington Grange, near Nottingham.
He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and in his university days he took a keen intererst in motorcycle racing. Racing under the nom de course of "Cantab", he rode a Cotton in the Amateur Tourist Trophy in 1924 and 1926, but crashed during the subsequent 1926 Senior TT, suffering grevious injuries which required a long convalescence.
He took up motorcycling seriously at Brooklands where he was considered a promising racer and a popular figure, owing to his invariable habit of wearing on the track a black silk shirt upon which was embroidered a white cat. In October 1926 Archie Birkin obtained a controlling interest in the McEvoy Motors Ltd. based in Derby. The company ceased trading two years after his death.
During an early morning practice session for the 1927 Isle of Man TT races, Archie Birkin, riding a 500c McEvoy motor-cycle, crashed fatally at Rhencullen after swerving to avoid a collision with a fish van being driven on open roads. The corner at Rhencullen on the A3 road where the accident occurred was named as 'Birkin's Bend'.
From 1928 onwards, practice sessions for the Isle of Man TT Races and Manx Grand Prix were held on closed public roads.
Archie's elder brother was Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, one of the famous "Bentley Boys", two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, who would lose his life six years later in consequence of an accident during the Tripoli Grand Prix.
He was the son of a Baronet, Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin and Lady Margaret Diana Chetwynd Birkin of Ruddington Grange, near Nottingham.
He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and in his university days he took a keen intererst in motorcycle racing. Racing under the nom de course of "Cantab", he rode a Cotton in the Amateur Tourist Trophy in 1924 and 1926, but crashed during the subsequent 1926 Senior TT, suffering grevious injuries which required a long convalescence.
He took up motorcycling seriously at Brooklands where he was considered a promising racer and a popular figure, owing to his invariable habit of wearing on the track a black silk shirt upon which was embroidered a white cat. In October 1926 Archie Birkin obtained a controlling interest in the McEvoy Motors Ltd. based in Derby. The company ceased trading two years after his death.
During an early morning practice session for the 1927 Isle of Man TT races, Archie Birkin, riding a 500c McEvoy motor-cycle, crashed fatally at Rhencullen after swerving to avoid a collision with a fish van being driven on open roads. The corner at Rhencullen on the A3 road where the accident occurred was named as 'Birkin's Bend'.
From 1928 onwards, practice sessions for the Isle of Man TT Races and Manx Grand Prix were held on closed public roads.
Archie's elder brother was Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, one of the famous "Bentley Boys", two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, who would lose his life six years later in consequence of an accident during the Tripoli Grand Prix.
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