H.M.S. Barham 1937 Isle of Man TT Arbuthnot Trophy Winners Off Road Motorcycle

Description

So many great and intriguing things about this photo read below.
H.M.S. Barham "Winners of Arbuthnot Trophy 1937"
Photograph by R Ellis Photo Malta
Sailors from the British Battleship H.M.S. Barham pose with the original Arbuthnot Trophy they apparently won in the last race before a 45 year hiatus.  You can see the trophy in the center behind the officers and two smaller trophies in the front on the floor.  The Barham was sunk in 1941 by a U-boat with nearly 2/3rds of her crew perishing.  The video of the sinking is spectacular (on YT).
At the time of this photo, she was the flagship of the Mediterranean fleet.  This photo was likely taken during this time in Malta.
HMS Barham:
"HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Often used as a flagship, she participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. For the rest of the war, except for the inconclusive action of 19 August 1916, her service generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939 and accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers, HMS Duchess, on her voyage home three months later. She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940, where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she covered multiple Malta convoys. She helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarine U-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two thirds of her crew."
An excerpt about how the trophy came to be named after Sir Robert Arbuthnot, and thus the Navy connection:
"While commanding HMS Defence during the battle of Jutland he attempted a bold maneuver that brought him under heavy enemy fire, and his vessel was sunk with all 903 hands.
Rear-Admiral Arbuthnot went down with his ship – and legend says his TT Triumph went down with him – but his name lives on in the world of motorcycling. Immediately after WW1 the Arbuthnot Trophy Trial was created by friends to honor his memory. First held in 1919, it was an event for sporting motorcycles and was open to flag officers, captains and officers of wardroom or gunroom rank of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Naval Reserve, or Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the active list. The Trophy was a bronze statuette of the Rear-Admiral in early motorcycle riding gear. Although the event achieved prominence in Britain, and ran through the 1920s and 1930s, it ceased sometime around 1937.
After laying dormant on a shelf at ACU headquarters for some 45 years, the Arbuthnot Trophy was returned to competition in 1982 as the premier award in a trial for old style rigid-framed motorcycles. Run over a course of nearly 80 miles in the Salisbury area, much of which was over tracks, it was a successful attempt to re-enact the type of long-distance Trial that was popular between the two world wars.
Having re-established itself, the Arbuthnot Trophy Trial continues to run on an annual basis and entry is no longer restricted to members of the Senior Service (as the Royal Navy calls itself). It is now open to anyone with a suitably old bike who wants a good ride over reasonable off-road going.
Relatively little is made of the origin and history surrounding the Arbuthnot title at the present event, but it would be nice to think that at some time during their day’s sport, current participants spare a thought for the former TT rider and war hero who gave his life for his country and his name to their trial."
Richard Ellis himself was quite a renowned photographer from Malta (this would be from his grandson, though):
"Richard Ellis (27 January 1842 – 23 December 1924) was a British-Maltese photographer who was one of the pioneers of photography in Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in St.Luke's, East London, he travelled throughout Europe as a circus performer before settling down in Malta at the age of nineteen. Within a few years he had opened a studio in Valletta, and he became a renowned photographer. His archive of tens of thousands of photographs still exists, and his work is significant for both its historic value and technical quality. His work is now in the public domain according to the law of Malta."
Photo itself Measures 8 1/2 by 11  3/4
Total measurements 18 by 14
Box J 3302021
Weight 8 ounces