The engine of Moorhouse's 994 cc Indian was running badly before the start, and he was the last man to line up. Nevertheless he got away fairly well and was soon in the lead, reeling off laps at around the 70 mph mark. By the seventh lap the leading four were Moorhouse, G. E. Stanley (499 Singer), Harry Collier (741 Matchless-JAP) and Sidney Tessier (741 BAT-JAP). The next thing seen by spectators at the Fork was a big blaze at the start of the Railway Straight and a column of smoke. The first facts came from W. O. Oldman, who said Moorhouse was seriously injured in a crash and that the race had been stopped. Later it was learnt that he had been killed.
Years afterwards Harry Bashall, who rode a 340 cc Humber in the race, recounted what had in fact happened: "In the course of the race Moorhouse's Indian had lapped my Humber several times. When it passed me on the seventh lap, I noticed that its back wheel was canted over in the frame fork ends, as if the spindle nuts had worked loose. It seemed as if the pull of the driving chain was the only thing keeping the wheel in position. Then, as Moorhouse went up the Members' Banking prior to sweeping down on to the Railway Straight, the wheel must have come loose, for he went at full speed into a telegraph pole on the inside of the track and was killed outright. His machine burst into flames."
It is part of the Brooklands' folklore that Moorhouse's machine was buried by his friends beneath the telegraph post that killed him, and which was said to bear the imprint of his goggles from the impact. If true, the machine may still be there to this day.
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