Alfred Child

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Alfred Child was a super salesman who did much to spearhead Harley-Davidson's exports in the 1920s and '30s. Born in England, he worked his passage across the Atlantic at the age of 16 and after working as a butler, handyman and seller of cycle pans, joined Harley-Davidson. After acting as Arthur Davidson's assistant, he was sent to Africa, which he explored riding a model and sidecar. Starting in Cape Town and finishing in Cairo, he took orders for 400 bikes and galvanized many dealers into action. Then Davidson sent him to Japan, where Child was to remain until war broke out, first importing Harleys. then setting up a production facility for which drawings and machine tools were bought from Milwaukee, and the Sankyo company began to make all-Japanese two-and three-wheelers based on Harley-Davidson designs. After a disagreement, the contract was terminated and Alfred Child was again Harley-Davidson's Japanese importer: but after the Second World War, Child turned up in the USA as the importer for BSA! It was his evidence (citing his knowledge of Harley-Davidson's restrictive practices) that helped persuade the Tariff Commission to turn down Harley-Davidson's request for higher tariffs on imported bikes in 1951. Alfred Child lived to a ripe old age into the late 1970s. He had had an eventful life, to say the least.