In 1923, Dunkley entered the history books with a fairly unlikely motor vehicle - a motorised perambulator. The Pramotor was a scooter attached to the rear of a large baby pram, and the nanny rode standing astride the engine on the scooter platform. Initially powered by a 1hp horizontal single-speed twostroke which required a push the bathtub and leap aboard with your ankle-length dress start, the following year a 2-speed version was offered with a kickstarter and clutch lever making life oh so much easier for intrepid nursie.
These brilliantly thought-out contraptions were promptly banned from footpaths and parks meaning they had to share the road with lumbering milk carts, motor bicycles and the local laird's Hispanic Wheezer. This proved problematical of course, with a one-horse engine having difficulty pacing the milko's cart let alone Sir Richcant's 17 litre behemoth, so Dunkley's solution was to produce a 750cc version of the Pramotor. Or so says The Daily Mail, writing " For sporting nannies there was the option of this space-age looking 21 horsepower engine - a 750 cc two-stroke single - which at 75 guineas promised performance far beyond the roadholding capabilities of the average perambulator" as the caption to an image which shows the Duke of York admiring the machine. But who am I to doubt the veracity of that august publication.
I still don't understand why Wikipedia deleted some 12 thousand references to The Daily Mail - I mean, it's not as if it's a Murdoch publication, for goodness sake.
Models included the Model 20 Pramotor (40 guineas) and the Saloon Pramotor (135 guineas).
The Motor Cycle December 14th, 1922.
The Pramotor.
Sources: Graces Guide, The Motor Cycle, huffingtonpost.co.uk.
If you have further information or a query related to this page, please contact us
