FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 20 The latest news of the 'First Overland' DVD, based on Antony Barrington-Brown's original film footage of the 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition from London to Singapore. For more information contact Graeme Aldous firstoverland@teeafit.co.uk

Oxford Blue

Dave Barker, the Assistant Editor of 'Land Rover enthusiast' magazine, has done us proud in the current (July 2008) issue.

In a smashing write-up of the meeting at Gaydon of Tim Slessor and Michael Geary (with his replica of 'Oxford'), Dave very accurately reflected the emotion of the moment when Tim once again got behind the wheel of 'Oxford' after 50+ years, and Michael found that one of his heroes was actually driving his car. It was an excellent article, and I can thoroughly recommend that you go straight to your local newsagent and get a copy. Any problems, visit the LRE Website.

'Oxford' in the South Atlantic (or was it 'Cambridge'?)

In the last Newsletter I said that one question I'm asked more than any other is "What happened to the vehicles afterwards?". When Tim was asked the same question at Gaydon, he referred to a book called 'Wideawake Island', which he said revealed more of the story and confirmed that one of the vehicles later went to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. I asked if anyone could give me more information.

Richard Poulton not only identified the book, but pointed me towards Cotswold Internet Books where I was able to get a copy for only £13. So, thanks Richard (and Ben Smith, who also gave me the details). It's an account (published in 1960 by Hutchinson) of the 1957-59 British Ornithologists' Union Centenary Expedition to Ascension Island, where the Wideawake Tern is a birder's favourite. As soon as the package arrived, I flipped through the pictures... and there it was:

No doubt about it — in the book you can clearly read the registration SNX 891, which means that this is 'Oxford'. And the author, Bernard Stonehouse, wrote on P29: On the second day we took the cab off the Land Rover; with its legend 'London-Singapore: First Overland' it had caused comment wherever we had travelled, for ours was indeed one of the vehicles which a group of undergraduates had driven from Europe to Malaya. Subsequently lent to our expedition by the Rover Company, it had caused us acute embarrassment in London, for well-wishers had thumped us on the back and asked us how we fared in Afghanistan, or told us of their own experiences with an Austin 7 in Darjeeling. We had thought of adding `First Overland to Ascension', but decided it would take too long to explain. Now the cab lay in the dust by the mess garage, the wonder of visiting Americans and a splendid opening subject for conversation. "Say, what's this 'First Overland' angle . . . ?" We must have boosted American sales a thousandfold. Naturally, the book is mainly concerned with the birdlife of Ascension, but Bernard's index gives 20 mentions for 'Land-Rover', and clearly the vehicle was a vital tool in getting the team members around the island. But what happened after the BOU Expedition was over? A little further research was called for, which eventually proved that Tim and BB were right when they said in the DVD interview that one of the cars (they didn't know which) went to Ascension, and may have gone on to St.Helena. The first person I managed to contact was Philip Ashmole, the Expedition member who took the photo. Confirming that the vehicle was only on loan from the Rover Company, he said that before the BOU Expedition left Ascension Island in 1959, it was sold (on Rover's behalf) "for a trivial sum" to a St.Helenian living on Ascension. He later took it on the steamer to his native island, where 'Oxford' was still running as late as 1993. However, when Philip and Myrtle Ashmole went to live on St.Helena for 6 months in 1995, it was no longer running, but they saw 'the carcass'.

The Expedition team of young scientists was led by Bernard Stonehouse, a zoologist from the Edward Grey Institute of Oxford University. Now a noted polar specialist, he emailed me to say:

So far as I recall, Guy Mountford, our very effective expedition manager, approached Land Rover to lend us a vehicle for use on Ascension Island. They had recently refurbished the two 'First Overland' vehicles, so lent us one of them. I do not know which of the two it was, but, as you will see from the photographs in 'Wideawake Island', it was pale blue rather than dark: the number plate may offer a clue. The cab with its 'First Overland' legend came with us, but we did not use it at all. I spent a few days at Solihull on the LR maintenance and hard-driving course. On Ascension Island the vehicle was serviced from time to time along with the Cable and Wireless fleet, by courtesy of the C&W manager and transport manager, so it was still in good shape by the end of the expedition.

LR gave us permission to sell it locally on their behalf, rather than ship it back to UK. I seem to remember we gained their asking price of around £400, but have no record of the deal and do not recall the name of the buyer. He was a St.Helenian who shipped it home at the end of his contract.

But just a minute — what was that about it being pale blue? I confess that when I first saw Philip's photo in the book, my immediate reaction was that it was 'Cambridge' — in a black & white photo it looked exactly the same as SNX 761 did in BB's pics in 'FO'. It was only when I checked the registration that I realised it was 'Oxford' I was looking at. I asked Bernard for confirmation of the colour, and he replied:

Our vehicle was undoubtedly the standard LR pale blue, with no indication that it had ever been darker blue. It gained a few scratches along the way, so we would have noted any underlying colour, particularly if it had been our own Oxford dark blue. It is just possible that the cab was darker — we stored it under cover and saw virtually nothing of it until the end.

But neither car could have been described as "standard LR pale blue", so had there been some repainting going on? It doesn't seem very likely, bearing in mind that the hardtop still seemed to have its lettering. A wild thought — had Solihull been doing some renovation on both vehicles, and put the registration plates on them the wrong way round?

Well, it turns out that Bernard's son Paul, who is an LR enthusiast, a few years ago made enquiries on St.Helena and was able to track the vehicle down. Shortly afterwards he and I had a long phone conversation, and he confirmed the sale to a St.Helenian, on behalf of the Rover Company, who were most insistent that the cheque had to be made out to them — the vehicle was only on loan to the BOU. The buyer (possibly named George Moyes?) has now died, and the car was then taken over by his Son-in-Law (?), who is still using the hardtop (identified by the hatch), although the rest of the chassis is now just 'a carcass'.

And this present owner sent Paul the Chassis Number plate as a souvenir. So we now know that the car was 57107041 (which signifies 1955 model year, Land Rover 86", Home Market, number 7041, all of which tallies). This chassis plate, along with some photos, is now in a 'safe place' at Bernard's home. Unfortunately the location of the 'safe place' has been temporarily un-remembered, but Paul is keen to rediscover it for us as soon as possible.

But Paul says Bernard had previously told him that the vehicle was grey, and confirms that no light or dark blue was revealed by paint chips. He agrees with me that Philip Ashmole's photo would suggest it was not dark blue. So although we have confirmation of part of the story, it's still not full confirmation.

But help may come from a rather unexpected source. The Ascension Island Post Office contributes significantly to the income of the Island by issuing commemorative stamps and first day covers. To mark the 50 years since the BOU expedition, at the end of last year they issued a set of stamps — you can get more details on their website.

One of the 'Sheetlets' of stamps uses Philip Ashmole's picture as its background

...and on the Mint Set of stamps you can see (in the 15p stamp top left) a colour photo of the base camp, with the Land-Rover parked between two of the huts. Unfortunately it's not easy to see its colour from this picture (downloaded from the AIPO website), but I've ordered a set of the stamps, and am waiting for them to arrive (probably by steamer?!) so I can check them in full resolution.

So, at least we have confirmation that one of the cars has (almost) ended its days on St.Helena. But which one? And don't forget that this doesn't go anywhere to answering the question "What happened to the other one?" But investigations will continue, and I hope to bring you more news in a future Newsletter.

Incidentally, I learned something from Dave Barker's 'LRe' article (above) — if ever one of the hardtops is found, there is the possibility of it identifying the vehicle it came off, even if it is minus its colour and signage. Despite all the hours I've spent with the video footage, I'd never noticed that 'Oxford' had its extra spotlight mounted on the left-hand end of the sun visor above the windscreen, but on 'Cambridge' a similar spotlight was mounted lower down, probably on the windscreen hinge. I suspect it was Michael Geary who noticed that, building his replica! Find the sun visor — if it has a hole, it's 'Oxford'; if not, it's 'Cambridge'.

Other Expeditions