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FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 38The 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, and the subsequent 'After
Overland' adventures of the two cars. |
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The Grenadier
Sometimes it can be very difficult to get a video project going — there may be plenty of excellent material collected, but somehow there seems to be no 'way in' to the story... no way of starting to tell it. The picture above was the key to exploring on DVD what came 'After Overland'.
It's 'Oxford' (and me!) outside The Grenadier pub in Belgravia... the nearest pub to Hyde Park Corner, which is the location in London from where traditionally all measurements to other places are made. and it's from The Grenadier that the 'First Overland' team set off on September 1st 1955 for their journey to Singapore. I'd been struggling to visualise the opening scene of what is now the 'After Overland' DVD, until Adam Bennett said that he was taking SNX891 there for a photo opportunity, and Tim Slessor, Pat Murphy and Nigel Newbery would be there too. That was the way in that I needed, and I took the train down to London to capture the moment, and to record my opening.
You can see from my coat that it was earlier in the year, but still it wasn't easy to get the film finished. There was always something else going on — another journey for 'Oxford', or someone new who just had to be interviewed. In the end I had to set myself a deadline — the Land-Rover Series One Club were celebrating the Land-Rover's 70th birthday with their international rally on the island of Anglesey in mid-June, and that was the spur I needed. It was touch and go... I only got the printed wraps and new inserts for the boxes from the printer later on the Wednesday afternoon, and had to have over 200 DVDs collated and boxed up before I left early on the Friday morning for North Wales. But we made it, and we had a steady stream of people visiting the 'Gazebodeon' that I set up to show snippets from the film. |  The 'Gazebodeon' |
So what were these Oxford journeys, and who were the people to be interviewed? Well, what I was trying to tell (with the help of Adam Bennett, journalist Peter Galilee, Ben Stowe from Black Paw 4x4, and many others) was what had happened to the two 'Oxford' and 'Cambridge' cars after they got back from Singapore — it's the question I'm most often asked when I do my talks, and I've given some of the details in previous newsletters. But now I needed to look closer.
 David Millard |
The two cars had only been loaned to the Expedition, and so they returned to The Rover Company, who proudly paraded them to the Lode Lane workforce. David Millard was an apprentice at the time. "Of course, they were things of wonderment to us lads, having just completed the London to Singapore overland. They were paraded in the main work’s canteen and the workforce was filed by and looked on and we all oohed and ahhed and they were all very pleased with the company’s efforts. And of course, it underlined the strength of Land-Rover." |
For a while they were used for promotional purposes, but in 1958 Rover announced their new Land Rover — the Series 2. The old-shape cars (now known as Series 1) were no longer as useful to the publicity department, so they were disposed of. SNX761 ('Cambridge') was in better condition than 'Oxford', and so was sold on into the trade... what happened next I'll come back to later.
Just at this time, the British Ornithologists' Union were celebrating their centenary with a scientific expedition to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, and needed a vehicle to get around the remoter parts of the island. Could the Rover Company help them out? They could, with a car just nicely run in on a little trip to Singapore and back. SNX891 was shipped on a Union Castle liner, and on October 7th 1957 was craned ashore on the island.
 The initial BOU team |
The Expedition leader was Bernard Stonehouse (right in picture), who set up the initial camp with Philip Ashmole (second left). They were later joined by Douglas Dorward (left) and Bernard's wife Sally. Others came and went, and a precious find for the DVD was some 8mm home movie footage of 'Oxford' travelling on the island, taken by Eric Duffey. It's of period quality, but it does give some idea of the island terrain that made a 4x4 necessary. |
 Eric Duffey's movie |
 Philip Ashmole |
Philip Ashmole said that the Land-Rover had been essential. "I think a road from Georgetown, the capital, to the airstrip that the Americans put in during the Second World War was probably tarmacked about that time. It was a reasonably decent road, but it faded out very quickly in all directions, into extremely rough lava. We were travelling only a dozen miles in each direction a day, probably, but it was extremely rough country and many of the things that we did, mainly going to the place where we kept our boat, we had to go across the tracks which were definitely 4-wheel drive capable vehicle tracks. We had to build bits of them before we could go down them at all, so, we did quite a lot of pick and shovel work in the first few trips." |
 Bernard on a lava road |
 Bernard & Sally | And Sally Stonehouse had a particular memory of her late husband Bernard's unflappability. "It was 26 hairpin bends going up to the top of Green Mountain, and we’d been up there one day, the four of us. We were coming down and Bernard was driving, and he drove down very, very slowly and we were anxious to get back and make supper and get on with things. ‘Couldn't you go a bit faster?’. Bernard was just sort of impervious and said ‘No, no, no’ and went on at this snail’s pace and got to the bottom and then he said, ‘Actually, the brakes have failed’. So luckily, he’d brought us all safely down the 26-hairpin bends without turning a hair. |
 Sally Stonehouse |
The next part of the story I've told before, but to summarise, when the BOE expedition was over Rover were asked if they wanted SNX891 back. It wasn't worth the expense of shipping it home, so it was passed on to Mervyn March, the water bowser driver who’d supplied the camp. He drove it for many years on Ascension, but when it started to fail he cannibalised parts for a slightly younger 88" Land-Rover. On retirement he went back to his native island of Saint Helena, which is even more remote in the South Atlantic. Because vehicles and spares are so precious on remote islands, he shipped the 1½ cars with him, and continued to run the 88" on Helena, leaving the remains of SNX891 in a pile with a tarpaulin over. When the road up the mountain was being improved, the pile of scrap was literally bulldozed into the undergrowth.
As such its presence was well known about in the Land-Rover world, and many people (myself included) had vague dreams of going out to St.Helena to investigate. But as that involved a flight and sea crossing, it was a long-term project, and few (if any) made it. The recent opening (up to a point!) of an airport might have made things easier, but it was too late — Adam Bennett had got in first... but that was mainly lucky timing.
In his researches, Peter Galilee had enlisted the help of a Land-Rover enthusiast on the island, Bruce Salt — he knew every Land-Rover that was there, and could vouch for the authenticity of SNX891 and which bits had been merged into the other car, which now belonged to Mervyn's niece Gloria Leo and her husband Eric — Eric didn't want money for the remains, because island life operates far more by barter, but he was aware that his more modern Defender was getting unreliable. He would swap the 'scrap pile' for a younger Defender — not a recent one which needs specialist computers to maintain it... there are none on Helena. But a nicely refurbished 300 TDi would be acceptable. It was a 'no brainer' for Eric that Adam was happy to go along with. Eric and Bruce started to load a container.
 Tim Slessor, lost for words | On May 9th 2017, the container was opened at Adam's home in York, and Tim Slessor was reunited with the vehicle that he'd last seen 60 years before. It was an emotional moment for us all. The car was rebuilt, with the help of Ben Stowe and his team from Black Paw 4x4, with every effort being made to preserve the original parts if at all possible. Bits that were replaced were repainted to show that they were new — original sections were left with the patina that they'd acquired after 6 decades on South Atlantic islands and in a bramble bush. With the car's first-ever MOT certificate granted at the first attempt, and the SNX891 registration re-issued, 'Oxford' was free to meet an eager public at the Land Rover Owner Show in Peterborough (after a 'bedding-in' run over the North York Moors on the ancient Rudland Rigg road). |
 Rudland Rigg |
Since then, 'Oxford' has hardly been still. Adam's taken the car to classic rallies at the National Exhibition Centre near Solihull, the Bicester Heritage event in Oxfordshire, a classic show in Turin, as well as trips to France and Portugal. At the NEC a notable visitor to the stand was Dr Ralf Speth, CEO of the modern Jaguar Land Rover company — he came by unannounced late one afternoon to take a quiet look at one of the iconic cars that helped to save his company back in the fifties. In fact, the 'First Overland' team had been 9 days on their road to Singapore when he was born in Bavaria! |  Dr Ralf Speth visits the NEC |
 Sally Stonehouse meets the car again | And now it was time for some of 'Oxford's previous drivers to be reunited with their car, which put a new country under its wheels when Adam took it to Peebles in Scotland to meet Philip Ashmole. It was October 7th 2017 — an auspicious date, being 60 years to the day that Philip saw SNX891 being craned ashore on to Ascension Island. A later trip was made to Hampshire, when it was realised that (by a big coincidence) Sally Stonehouse had come to live only 5-minutes' walk from BB's son Chris Barrington Brown. Although BB's family had grown up with the knowledge that their father had made the epic journey to Singapore, this was the first time that Chris had seen the car that he'd travelled in. All this was captured for the 'After Overland' DVD. |
 Chris Barrington Brown |
 Terence Bendixson |
But what about SNX761 'Cambridge'? It was bought from the car dealership where it had been sold by Rover by Terence Bendixson. He and two friends, Anthony Snodgrass and Nicky Gage, set off in the ready-equipped expedition car for the Middle East — Anthony to do archaeological research in Turkey, and Terence and Nicky to learn more about the region with an idea to becoming specialist writers. After some time, Terence (alone) set off to drive back to the UK, travelling largely at night to escape the heat. Did he fall asleep? Did he simply miss the road on a sharp bend? Either way, the car went off the road and crashed down a ravine; he was thrown out and sustained a serious leg injury. Fortunately the headlights stayed on, and were seen pointing up into the night sky by a border guard, who organised a rescue and Terence was evacuated to hospital, in no fit state to know exactly where he was, or what happened to the car afterwards. Somewhat tactlessly, I asked him if he had any photographs to illustrate his expedition for the film — he pointed out that if he had had a camera with him, it was left at the bottom of the ravine along with the wrecked car! To this day no-one knows the exact location of the crash, and what happened to the wreck. Even if it was dragged out and saved, there is virtually no chance that it would have survived for another 6 decades, particularly as Iran has recently carried out a very efficient scrappage scheme for old cars. But there's always hope, and if anyone reading this is aware of the remains of a 1955 86" Land-Rover Station Wagon somewhere in the Middle East, Adam has the chassis, engine and gearbox serial numbers of SNX761 to cross-check. |
But there's another little sideline to this (which didn't make it into the DVD, so you're the first to know!) — Terence and Nigel Newbery had known each other at Oxford, and Nigel was aware that Terence had had a serious accident in a Land-Rover... but he didn't know which Land-Rover. When they all met up at The Grenadier, there was much good-natured joshing about "You killed our car!"
But there's another reason for the 'After Overland' title for the DVD — it's not only 'What happened to the cars?', but 'What happened to the people?' After Antony Barrington-Brown and his wife Althea were tragically killed in a road accident in 2012, the family were clearing out their house and came across a wooden box containing three large reels of 16mm film, similar to the 'First Overland' ones, but labelled 'Back To Burma'. Unable to view them, they asked me if I could do the same as I did with the 'First Overland' footage and get it put onto DVD so they could re-live their father's expedition. I was very happy to do so, electronically tidying up the footage and its edits as I'd done before. They said that I could make it public if it was suitable, so I had another DVD in mind.
But I must be frank and say that this wasn't another 'First Overland' — there was very little of the journey to interest Land-Rover enthusiasts, and quite a bit of it echoed locations previously seen in the first film. Not only that, like 'First Overland' it was silent, and I was faced with the need to get some kind of commentary. Without BB that would be difficult... the footage stayed on my shelf waiting for the right moment. The rescue of 'Oxford' was that moment.
Once Tim Slessor had got the 'First Overland' book into print, and the film footage had been broadcast on David Attenborough's 'Travellers' Tales' strand, Tim got a job working for the BBC, which in those days encouraged all its staff to have good programme ideas, and was flexible enough to get them put into production quickly. Hearing that BBC Schools were expanding from radio into television, Tim suggested two programmes, one on life in an Indian village and the other about the people who lived floating lives in Lake Inle (also featured in 'First Overland'). These were enthusiastically commissioned, but to make sure of the financial viability of the expedition, Tim also persuaded David Attenborough that it would be worth following up the news that a White Elephant had been born in Burma.
 Elephant help needed! |
Approaching the Rover Company again, Tim and BB acquired an early Series 2 car YAC502 — they painted its lower half red to minimise the chance that it would be mistaken for a military vehicle, and attacked by insurgents in Burma. Tim admits that they didn't hang about on the journey to India, as that wasn't the purpose of the trip, but BB took some impressive footage of the car making it through a muddy section of road where even the local trucks were getting bogged down. They also pointed the camera at a lot of working elephants for the David Attenborough film, even needing to be rescued by a timber crew when the road was blocked by a fallen tree. In a marvellous sequence, Tim mimes being an elephant to demonstrate to the foreman what sort of help was needed. He ruefully admits that not all of the pantomime was necessary to get the job done, but it was all good footage for the camera. They successfully found the White Elephant in Burma — not albino white, but a much lighter colour than standard 'elephant grey'. In much of the Far East white elephants were sacred, and had to be offered to the king, who would then ask the owner to look after the animal on his behalf. Tasked with feeding an animal that had to be kept in tip-top condition, and wasn't allowed to work for its living, the 'honour' was somewhat dubious, leading to the expression 'white elephant' for an unwanted gift. |
 The Young White Elephant |
But the 'Back To Burma' footage so suited the 'After Overland' theme that I visited Tim Slessor, and we talked about the expedition and the elephants, making a quarter-hour sequence that is now included in the DVD — footage that's not been seen publicly for 6 decades. To make sure that the film got finished at all, I settled on the Anglesey rally as my deadline, just making it (as I said) with hours to spare. For SNX891 Wales was yet another new country. Nigel and Gilly Newbery were able to join us for the Saturday, and were in the car when we paused to take the obligatory photograph underneath the railway station name at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Officially the longest place name in Europe (and second-longest in the world), it's actually a made-up name dating from the coming of the railways in Victorian times, when the residents of Llanfairpwll decided they needed a gimmick to encourage tourist visitors. It certainly works! |  SNX891 at LlanfairPG |
 Red Wharf Bay 'drawing' Drone picture by Patrick Joice |
But the highlight of the rally was the 'drawing' of a Land-Rover silhouette in the sand of Red Wharf Bay... with Land-Rovers! Folklore says that the Wilks brothers Maurice and Spencer, owners of the Rover company, were on the beach discussing the new vehicle that they knew they needed to save their company from post-war bankruptcy — they drew the outline of the car in the sand with a stick, and ever since Red Wharf Bay has been a place of Land-Rover pilgrimage. For the 70th Anniversary, the Series One Club mapped out the silhouette in the sand, and then directed 326 cars to follow the pattern. Joyous mayhem, but it was achieved before the tide came in, and photographed from the air. 'Oxford' is somewhere near the arrow. There was also a TV crew from BBC Wales on the beach, collecting material for a series of programmes that they would broadcast during the Royal Welsh Show in July. Hearing about the huge gathering of Land- Rovers, they thought it would make an item. Having had personal experience of what makes a smashing magazine programme item, I accidentally-on-purpose mentioned to the director that SNX891 had a great story behind it... and that one of the original team who went to Singapore was riding in the car. She rose to the bait, and 'Oxford' and Nigel (interviewed by Gareth Wyn Jones) became one of the main features. It will be broadcast on BBC Wales during the Royal Welsh Show between the 23rd and 26th of July, and repeated shortly after across the UK on BBC4. Whether or not it will be viewable on iPlayer outside the UK I don't know. |
 The BBC Wales crew Picture by Adam Bennett |
 Harold Woolgar (1956) |
The Anglesey experience doesn't feature in the DVD — as I said, I had to stop somewhere. But before we leave, there was a story that just had to be covered. When the 'First Overland' expedition arrived at Champion Motors in Orchard Road, Singapore, there was an enthusiastic welcome committee. BB filmed a little 12-year-old lad, taking photos of his heroes with a Kodak Brownie 127 camera. A few weeks ago I had a phone call from Adam to say that a series of coincidences had led to him discovering that the little lad (now 6 decades older) was living in North Lincolnshire. Naturally he had to be reintroduced to 'Oxford', and interviewed for the DVD. Harold Woolgar's family was in Singapore because his father was serving in the army. His mother was the PA to the boss of Champion Motors, and had arranged the reception. His school finished at 1 o'clock, so he was able to go to Orchard Road to join the crowd welcoming the Expedition at the end of their journey. Adam sourced another Brownie 127 from eBay, and we posed Harold with it. He even had prints of some of the photos that he took on the day — a direct link back to the Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition. |
 Harold Woolgar (2018) |
Adam Bennett's recovery and re-birth of SNX891 is a marvellous story, and he is determined that the car should be made available for as many people to experience as possible. At the time of writing this it's in the hands of Nicholas Enston, a specialist Land-Rover journalist in North Wales — we left the car with him when the Anglesey rally finished, and I took Adam back home to York. The 'After Overland' DVD tries to share the remarkable tale, and I'm delighted at how much of the hidden story we've been able to uncover. All we need now is for SNX671 'Cambridge' to come back from the dead as well!
The DVD is now on sale, priced at £22 (including postage) worldwide. You can order via the 'After Overland' sales page.
GRAEME ALDOUS.
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The 'After Overland' web page is www.afteroverland.co.uk.