During the late 1900’s and 1910’s brothers Alex and Mick Wann were amongst the strongest riders in WA. Members of the Bullsbrook Cycling Team they were sponsored by Davies Franklin Cycles and rode their best racing machine - the 'Model 9'. They had success in races from the metro area to Mt Magnet and Kalgoorlie.

The brothers were close. As teenagers, following their mother's death, they left their Armadale home and lived rough in the bush at Bibra Lake. They survived by shooting wild pigs, ducks and rabbits and were known to visit the Fremantle wharf where they would filch fresh bananas and other fruit.

By their early 20's the Wanns were powerful men working for the Midland Railway Co. as sleeper cutters in Bullsbrook. Alex and Mick thought nothing of riding 50km down to Perth on a Saturday afternoon, riding an 80km race, before pedalling home again.

1912 Beverley to Perth Race 'Easy Victory for Alex Wann'

Over 6000 people gathered at the Stirling Street finish line and Alex was carried shoulder high by admirers into the Shaftesbury Hotel. Alex started from scratch and passed the other 61 riders to claim victory.

1913 “The Wann Brothers Finish First and Second. Mick wins outright and Alex Fastest Time”. The Sunday Times interviewed Alex at the finish line: “I knew before I started I had no hope of catching my brother” said Alex Wann, winner of the second prize and fastest time. “The only thing left for me was to try for fastest time. That’s all the scratch man has got to hope for. The worst portion was easily those last three laps on the oval. I felt them more than the longest hill. Yes, I’ve had enough”.

Alex continued to ride and he won almost all the races he entered, including the 1915 Northam to Perth Road Race.

In 1916 Alex and Mick signed up for the Great War, along with many other cyclists, 1908 Beverley winner Claude Peglar among them. After basic training in Perth, they embarked for the UK to finish training in Durrington prior to being despatched to France to fight the Germans. In 1918, less than two years after leaving Perth, both brothers were killed in France, six weeks apart. Aged 35 Alex was shot by a German sniper as his battalion headed for the Hindenberg Line. He is honoured at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. Mick died of wounds aged 30 and is buried at Daours Communal Cemetery in France.

Photos of Alex Wann courtesy the Wann Family