Military with Bob Morrison
Bob Morrison attends this year’s War & Peace and falls in love with a Series IIA Ambulance 109
Bob attends the War & Peace Show in Kent and uncovers a very special Series IIA ambulance
I HAVE a soft spot for the FV18067 Series IIA Ambulance 2/4 Stretcher as it was the 1/35th scale plastic model of this military Land Rover variant that played a key part in the change of direction in my career.
Although not the first Land Rover model I built – that was a Series I in the Airfix construction kit of the RAF Bloodhound air defence missile – some of my earliest articles in society journals and scale modelling magazines concentrated on building versions of the 109-inch wheelbase ambulance.
The vehicle featured this month, which I spotted and photographed at the War & Peace Revival Vintage & Military History Festival at Beltring in Kent last summer, is owned by Joan Davies, who not only displays it but camps in it when attending shows.
Externally, with the exception of freewheeling hubs, the vehicle is pretty much original, but internally it has been slightly modified to allow a few comforts.
The Series IIA ambulance body shape and layout, which carried over onto the SIII 109 inch chassis, actually has its origins in a 1960 Series II conversion with the service designation FV18044. This Land Rover variant, which was capable of transporting two stretcher or six seated casualties, was itself an indirect derivative of Series I military ambulance conversions on the 107-inch chassis used primarily by the Royal Air Force.
Although today Joan’s ambulance appears to be two-stretcher configuration it did start life as an FV18067 2/4 stretcher variant, and indeed the original manufacturer’s plate on the lower left bodywork just above the locker in front of the rear wheel arch bears this out. From this plate we also discover that the bodywork conversion was carried out by Mickleover Transport Ltd, and not Marshall of Cambridge, who are more closely associated with the Series III versions. What’s more, a small square plate behind this bearing the letter T shows that wood used in constructing the bodywork has been tropicalised for service in theatres with high humidity.
At first glance it appears that Joan’s ambulance is properly configured to carry lower stretchers. This is actually an illusion as the metal channels, in which the stretcher legs would run, are missing and it appears that plain wooden panels have been added with timber beading where the channels should be. All traces of the upper stretcher racks, which hinged up and back to form seat backs when sitting casualties were transported, have vanished and the rear compartment interior appears to have been re-skinned.
The rear compartment roof has also been re-skinned with lights set into it and, as can be spotted from the interior photo, 240 V electrical sockets plus light switches have been built into the walls. Clearly a previous owner has also used this vehicle for camping and has stripped out the interior to make it more comfortable for this purpose, but by merely adding an opened stretcher the simple illusion of its basic role is created. Joan added the small chest of drawers and the thick foam mattress on the left side in place of the second stretcher to make living in it a little less spartan.
When we took Joan’s ambulance away from
the main camping area to photograph it in a more neutral setting I asked her how long she had owned the vehicle for.
“Almost to the day, a year. I bought it at War & Peace last year, actually,” she recalled. When I then enquired if she had to do anything to the vehicle since then, she exclaimed: “Oh, don’t start!” before she broke into a hearty laugh.
After drawing breath she continued: “I had problems with her from the outset, in the whole electrical business. New glow plugs, a new resistor, then I resorted to a new battery and finally we put in a new starter. Hey presto, I was able to start it on my own.
“I was chuffed then because I was able to keep it at home. I was now self-sufficient with it. Just recently I put a new alternator on her to come down here to Kent.”
As previously mentioned, externally the ambulance looks pretty authentic though the durbar plate on the wing tops is non-original, the canvas covers for the spare stretcher racks on the roof are missing and the protective mesh over the front lights is a non-original too. When the engine is running, however, a trained ear can detect from its London Taxi imitation that it has a diesel lump under the bonnet.
That non-original engine is also the source of another of Joan’s niggling issues, as she explained. “I’m also having problems with the fuel tank, but that’s because the original petrol has been removed and been superseded by a diesel tank at the back. The vehicle is dieselengined, it has a 2.25-litre diesel. Nothing to do with me! Absolutely nothing to do with me. I don’t know who did it. I’d say it’s most likely a civilian adaptation.”
Learning that this was her first Land Rover I asked Joan if she was ex-military and she told me: “No. I married into the military. My husband was in the New Zealand military forces, in Malaya, but when he finished his time he got out. It wasn’t the plan, but that’s what we did.” I then asked, what possessed her to buy this vehicle? Her reply was, “Because I’m crazy, completely mad!” Wrong answer Joan. The rest of the world are crazy, we’re not.
The Pink Tornado, who every so often disappears off to the Far East as a backpacker, much to the trepidation of her family, then elaborated: “I’d been to War & Peace twice, because my daughter and her partner have a Tithonous. They started coming down to the show with friends who had ex-military vehicles and they progressed to owning a Tithonous and becoming part of the gang. I came down two years running and camped, then last year I saw this one for sale at the show and thought ‘that will do me’. I can be like a snail and just take my bed with me. So I bought it there and then.”
Now that Joan is settling in with her home on wheels, and once the fuel tank issue has been properly remedied, she has plans to venture a bit further afield. Although she did not say so in as many words, it would not surprise me in the least to find that instead of jumping on a plane for her next backpacker trip to the Far East or Australasia she loads up her Land Rover and sets off overland. She’s just that sort of girl.
In 2019 ambulance SCD 798H will celebrate her 50th birthday and I reckon that would be a damn good reason to take this Tropicalised Series IIA out to parts of the Commonwealth that it was originally built to serve in. Unfortunately Joan is as yet unaware of this Rover’s military service history, or indeed its military registration, but if it is discovered that it served in the Tropics that could well be a catalyst. I hope I have not just poked a hornet’s nest.
One last point, keen-eyed readers might have spotted that although I have called this a Series IIA Land Rover its headlights are in the wings. The plain radiator grille and deeper sill panels under the cab doors visually identify it as being an SIIA and the H suffix civilian registration plate marks it as manufactured during the 1969/70 issue period.
Although headlights in the wings, rather than recessed beside the grille, is assumed by some to be a Series III identifier the move actually happened during the 1968/9 production period to suit international lighting legislation changes. You heard it here first... well, maybe!