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FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 35The 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. |
The 'Oxford' replica gets a new home... but I don't know where; we consider the figure 2,016,933, and see where BB's camera fits in; Tim Slessor helps build the most expensive Land Rover ever; we 'Hail Defender', and consider the perils of 'TLDR'.
But first.....
OK, so it's over 3 years since Newsletter 34 — I'm not proud of that, but for a long while I was waiting for some pictures to arrive. When they did, it was unfortunately the start of a rather worrying spell involving the health of one of the family, so I was somewhat distracted. Now, I'm pleased to say, the health scares are in the past, the photos are available, and I can put my mind to writing again.
Within a few days of the previous Newsletter being published, I had an email from Michael Geary saying that his replica of the Oxford car had found a new owner. You'll recall that it was Michael who was setting out to restore a Series 1 just at the time that the 'First Overland' DVD was issued. Taking that as inspiration, he decided to make his vehicle a replica of the Oxford car. That led to another Station Wagon, owned by Steve Kerss of Bath, being offered to make a replica of 'Cambridge'. What started as a somewhat quirky restoration idea soon grew into a full-blooded plan to mount a replica expedition to Singapore, with modern students but in authentic vehicles.
Sadly, political realities and other factors forced the dream to fade, and the 'Cambridge' car went back to Bath. But Michael assures me that 'Oxford' has found a new home with a strong Series One enthusiast in Surrey, where its future is assured. It's already been seen at various shows.
Even though the 'First Overland Second' expedition didn't take place, hats off to Michael for all the effort he put in to preserving a mobile, living memento of the 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' cars — long may they continue to keep the 'FO' memory alive. Incidentally, one of the prospective members of that expedition, Theo Ford-Sagers, is now a staff writer for Land Rover Owner International magazine.
But a second 'First Overland' has now taken place — more details later.
It can't be denied that the re-publishing of Tim Slessor's book by Signal Books was the catalyst for a whole resurgence of interest in the 'First Overland' expedition, with my DVD remastering of BB's film; Michael's replicas; the bringing-together of many original 'OxCam Expedition' members at an official Land Rover Reunion, and a tribute vehicle crossing Europe as part of the Millionth Discovery expedition to Beijing. The modern Land Rover company were acknowleding that the three Oxford & Cambridge expeditions in the 1950s had been an important milestone in the original Rover Company's history, bringing the vehicles to a potential market beyond the traditional UK and Commonwealth one.
This acknowledgement took a practical turn after the sad death of Antony Barrington-Brown ('BB') and his wife Althea in January 2012. His children, Annabel and Chris, were anxious that his cameras weren't just thrown out, and offered one to Land Rover on long-term loan. The arrangement was 'brokered' by Roger Willbourn, a friend of Pat and Tim, who met up in March 2006 with Tim, BB, Nigel, Pat, Adrian and their families for a 50th Anniversary reunion drive from Kuala Lumpur down to Singapore.
Roger Willbourn (centre, red shirt) with 'FO' Expedition members and familes, outside the Raffles Hotel, Singapore.
In May 2014 I was able to join Roger at the Land Rover Experience in the grounds of the Solihull factory, for an official hand-over of the camera.
Roger Willbourn (left) passes the camera to Mike Bishop from Land Rover Experience
At the time is was already known that the days of the traditional 'Land-Rover' were numbered — modern legislation, and very old-fashioned (and expensive) build methods, meant that the 'Defender' (as the original Land-Rover's descendents were now known) was coming to the end of its life. We now know that the last one came off the production line on January 29th this year, bringing to an end 68 years of tradition, and an unbroken link over 2,016,933 vehicles to the original Land-Rover, affectionately known by enthusiasts as 'Huey'.
 'Huey', the first Land-Rover |
 The last Land Rover |
Mike Bishop led the team that set out to celebrate the Land-Rover story by establishing a Heritage Exhibition in the section of the Lode Lane factory that had been the original production line, where the vehicles had been virtually hand-built in the 40s and 50s.
Visitors to the Exhibition first 'clocked on' as though they were employees, and then walked through the history of 'The World's Best 4x4xFar', including a half-built chassis, the 30-degree tilt test, and many artefacts from nearly 7 decades of Land-Rover. One of those was a section devoted to 'Exploration', and in a battered travel trunk, surrounded by some of BB's iconic still pictures, was his Bell & Howell camera — a very fitting tribute to the part that 'First Overland' played in the Land-Rover story.
But now I'm going to let you into a little secret... don't tell anyone, but there was a very slight subterfuge at work here. The wording of the accompanying exhibition label was carefully chosen — it told the truth in saying that the camera was used by BB, and if you wanted to believe that this was the actual 'First Overland' camera, then so be it. But the truth is slightly different.
If you've watched the 'extra' on my DVD about the behind-the-scenes work needed to re-master the original footage, you'll know that BB had a little trouble in the early stages of the journey because he had to use blind faith to be sure that the film he was taking was OK. He was sending the exposed film back to London for processing, and the home team were reporting back on how good it was. It wasn't until the expedition had reached Persia that he got word that in certain circumstances you could see one lens hood on his 3-lens turret in the corner of the picture taken on another lens — modern video camera operators can review their footage immediately, but in 1955 you couldn't even see what the film was seeing, as the crude viewfinder had to be selected to match the chosen lens. In the digital remastering I was able, after 50 years, to correct this problem.
In 1958, Tim Slessor and BB set off on a second expedition, Back to Burma (which was also filmed, but has never been publicly available). There was now a new Bell & Howell 16mm camera on the market — basically the same as the original one, but with a geared turret that kept the lens and its appropriate viewfinder together. Tim and BB went half shares on this new model, with the original camera traded in. So the camera in the Heritage Exhibition has definitely been used by BB on an expedition to the Far East... but just not ours! I hope that doesn't bitterly disappoint anyone who's been to Lode Lane, but we're all friends here, and I can't tell an untruth.
But you don't have to physically go to Lode Lane to experience the Heritage Exhibition. The still shot above I cribbed from a marvellous piece of internet wizardry in which you can walk through the exhibition (as in a Google Street View), and experience it for yourself. Visit the Land Rover website to try it out... click the 'Celebration Line' link on the left, and spot BB's camera as you go through.
And there is one last aspect to this. I was very honoured when BB's daughter Annabel asked if I would accept a little memento of her father from the house in Wiltshire. Thinking of something small — a souvenir pebble from the Ledo Road or something — I naturally said that I would be honoured. She offered me BB's back-up camera — a smaller Bell & Howell, with 2 lenses, and a nifty 'cassette' version of loading the film, which meant that it could be changed (eg from B&W film stock to colour) in mid reel without risking accidental exposure of the film to the light. I was blown away by this generous offer, and happily accepted.
Now, in reality, Tim Slessor says that he can't actually remember BB having such a camera on the second expedition... but it was nearly 60 years ago, so I'm sure he won't mind me over-ruling his memory for the sake of my own smug self-satisfaction! To be honest, I'll never actually use the camera for anything — the difficulty of getting suitable film, and having it processed, let alone edited and projected, means I'll stick to my video camera — but it is a wonderful thing to have, and now when I do my 'First Overland Roadshow' talks, I take it along with me in its fitted leather case, and it gives my audience a direct link back to the team that made that historic journey. Annabel and Chris, I feel very honoured to have it in my possession... thank you.
2015-16 has been a very emotional time for fans of the 'Green Oval', with the end of an era for one of the most recognisable vehicles in the world, with an unbroken visual heritage and production facility that no other vehicle can match. And to their credit, Land Rover marked the passing of this icon with more than just a special exhibition.
The 2-millionth Land Rover — a modern Defender, of course — was something very special. Not only did it have some unique design features, such as special seats and body engravings showing Red Wharf Bay in Anglesey (where the Wilks Brothers had the original idea for a utility vehicle, and famously sketched the basic outline in the sand), but it was specially built by a team of people with historic Land-Rover connections. Celebrities like Bear Grylls, Theo Paphitis, Adam Henson and Virginia Mckenna were involved, and our own Tim Slessor was invited to take part — his contribution was to help install the windscreen. All these people were commemorated in a signed plaque carried on the vehicle, which was destined to become the most expensive Land Rover ever!
On December 16th 2015 the car went under the hammer at Bonhams Sale Room, in New Bond Street, London, and Tim was amongst those watching (with his hands firmly in his pockets, I don't doubt!). After 7 minutes the bids had reached £400,000, although it was a further tense 3 minutes before the hammer finally fell at that price to a telephone bidder from Quatar. This was beyond the wildest dreams of anyone predicting how much the car would sell for, and it's a pretty safe bet that it won't be seen roaring up any desert dunes in the near future. The proceeds were shared between the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Born Free Foundation, Land Rover's chosen humanitarian and environmental charities. It set the scene for the final Land Rover Defender to come down the Lode Lane production line a few weeks later.
But before we leave the sad demise of the traditional Land-Rover, can I point you to a little bit of fun that the company had before the production line stopped rolling. To tie in with the Bonhams auction, a black Defender was mocked up to look like a London Taxi, with a yellow light on the roof. It was filmed travelling through London, with a great number of visual gags, like 'Land Rover Lane' road markings, and LR-shaped wafers in the cones served by the Series 2 Ice Cream Van that I've known for years on Whitby beach. And for the true enthusiasts there were even more subtle 'in-jokes'... the 'taxi' drives past a brewer's dray unloading kegs of 'Red Wharf' beer. The taxi driver (Land Rover's longest-serving employee, Roger Crathorne) walks down Amsterdam Road, W1948 — Huey was first introduced to the world at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show. There's a 'Wilks Brothers' shop front — Maurice & Spencer Wilks were the Rover Company owners who devised Huey.
Mike Bishop was one of the driving forces behind it, and even if you don't 'get' all the references, I strongly recommed that you visit the website and view Defender Taxi. It's good fun.
Despite the collapse of the 'First Overland Second' expedition, there now has been a successful re-staging of the London-to-Singapore-in-a-Series1 journey. Canadian Ray Hyland and his family decided to attempt the journey — admittedly by a slightly different route to the original 'FO' — and completed it a few weeks ago. Tim met them to see them off.
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They had some marvellous adventures, which were covered in articles in Classic Land Rover magazine, which I will try to summarise. But not today — what with that and the large number of exploration memories that you've sent me in the past 3 years, I think that had better be saved for Newsletter 36.
I heard a new internet acronym the other day — like 'IIRC' (If I Recall Correctly), 'AFAIK' (As Far As I Know) and 'ROTFL' (Rolls on Floor, Laughing). But I consider 'TLDR' to be a bit beyond the pale. It means 'Too Long, Didn't Read', and it's perhaps indicative of the sound-bite/Twitbook generation (which I've not signed up to yet) where anything that takes a little bit of effort to read or watch is just dismissed out of hand. But there's no denying that it's a trend... and I'm aware that it's already taking a lot of scrolling to get from one end of this Newsletter to the other. So I shall stop, and promise you that the next Newsletter, with those Travellers' Tales, won't be another 3+ years in the making.
With all the very best for (what's left of) 2016,
GRAEME ALDOUS
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