AN AUTHOR is appealing for information about the Bournemouth-born motorcyclist who died 80 years ago while trying to win back the sport’s world speed record.

Eric Fernihough died on April 23, 1938, when he was flung off his Brough-Superior motorcycle at around 168mph on the road to Istanbul, south of Budapest.

Terry Wright is working on a book about Fernihough, his rival Ernst Henne and their pursuit of the absolute world motorcycle speed record.

Research suggests Fernihough’s family were once well-to-do. But when Eric was born in Birkenhead in 1905 – his parents’ ninth child – his mother was working as a stewardesss for the Cunard steamship line and all but the grown-up children were in care.

There is no trace of his father from that time, but his mother Jane died giving birth in 1908. It is believed Eric was chosen for adoption by the widow Emily McCalmont at a Merseyside children’s home some time before 1910. He kept his surname and lived at 5 Stourwood Avenue, Southbourne, with his adoptive mother.

He spent two years boarding at Clayesmore School, then near Winchester, and three years reading chemistry, engineering and economics at Cambridge University.

After graduating, he took up motorcycle racing, while still living in Southbourne. It is believed he worked for Hendys, Britain first Ford dealer, which had a branch in Bournemouth and also dealt in motorcycles.

In 1931, he married Dorothy Penrose from Shirley, Southampton, and took over the Tower Garage next to the Brooklands track near Weybridge, Surrey, where he developed a tuning and motor engineering business.

As a racing motorcyclist, he set a new Brooklands lap record of 123.54mph in July 1935 on a JAP V-twin engine Borough-Superior he had developed himself.

On April 19, 1937, he narrowly took the absolute world speed record from Ernst Henne at 169.79mph, but Henne later regained it at 173.68mph.

In April 1938, as 33-year-old Fernihough tried to win back the record, a witness reported seeing a severe wobble which caused him to lose control.

Fernihough was buried at Boscombe cemetery on May 4, 1938. He will be remembered this month by a ceremony at a memorial built by locals at the spot where he died.

Anyone with information about Fernihough’s childhood should contact Mr Wright on tsrwright@gmail.com