Walter, born way back in 1902, was one of the early Isle of Man TT stars. His father dies when Walter was 9 years old so at the tender age of 12 he left school and started working, ending up at OK-Supreme factory as a junior tester and general helper, or ‘dogsbody’ as we used to call them.
Walter’s TT career began in 1922 when he raced an OK-Supreme bike in the lightweight class, setting the fastest lap but failing to finish the race when an inlet valve broke. His early morning practise session was his first encounter with the course. He set off going the wrong way around before marshalls at Governor’s Bridge flagged him down. Much hilarity ensued in the press at Wal’s expense.
In 1924, Wal changed to a Rex-Acme motorcycle and was in the lead when he again suffered mechanical troubles, his bad luck continuing, but in 1925 he finally achieved success, winning the lightweight and super-lightweight races and becoming the first rider to win two TT races in one week.
Walter switched manufacturer’s again in 1929, coming second in the Junior race on an AJS. The Senior TT was a wet race. He and several other riders slid off their bikes at Greeba Bridge. Unhurt, Walter quickly moved fallen riders and their machines off the road preventing further accidents before going to get help. The ACU Secretary, Tom Loughborough sent Wal a letter thanking him for thinking of others by giving up his own chances.
His fourth win, at a rain soaked Senior TT of 1930, was on a works-assisted Rudge at the record speed of 74.24 mph. He became the first rider to lap the mountain course under 30 mins, the first to do two laps under the hour and the first to do four laps under two hours. It was also the last time a push rod machine won a TT race; and it was the last time that a TT winner’s bike could have been bought over the counter by an enthusiast as a near standard production machine.
Off the island, Walter won both the solo and the sidecar 200-mile events on the notoriously rugged Brooklands outer circuit. In 1929 he raced up Switzerland’s Klausen Hill Climb to win the 350cc class at record speed, riding a Motosacoche. On the European mainland and in Northern Ireland he had many Grand Prix victories. On three occasions in the inter-war period he became European champion, twice in the 350cc class (1928 and 1935) and once in the 500cc class (1928). He also became the holder of numerous motorcycle world records taken in 1930 at Arpajon and Montlhéry aboard the Belgian FN designed by Dougal Marchant. Earlier, at Brooklands in 1926, he broke the 200-mile world records for all classes up to and including 1000cc on his 350cc Rex Acme. On the same day he took the prestigious classic hour record for solo 500cc machines at 91.20 mph on a 350cc machine. The only time this has been done.
In 1933 he also added a couple of 250cc continental Grand Prix wins riding Moto Guzzi machines, and in the same year he broke the run of Norton dominance by winning the 350 class of the Ulster Grand Prix. In 1934 he contracted to race Norton motorcycles and gained his fifth win in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. In 1937 he gained the gold star for BSA by lapping the Brooklands circuit at over 107 mph.
In 1941, Capt W. L. Handley was killed while serving with the Air Transport Auxiliary as a pilot at Kirkbride airfield near Kirkhampton, Cumberland. His aircraft, a P-39 Airacobra crashed just after take-off.