Why the Moke was no joke
QUESTION This year is the 50th anniversary of the Mini Moke. What are the origins of this unusual vehicle?
GREEK-BORN British designer Alec Issigonis (1906-88) is best known as the creator of the Mini, but also designed two more of the five best-selling cars in British motoring history — the Morris Minor and the Austin 1100.
After the Mini was launched in 1959, it rapidly became the fastest- selling car in Europe. It was a Sixties style icon: its celebrity owners included The Beatles and actors Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Steve McQueen.
Issigonis developed numerous variations on the original Mini including van and pickup versions, the Morris Mini Traveller and the utilitarian Mini Moke (Moke being an archaic word for a donkey), a prototype for a light military vehicle in the style of the American Jeep.
The British Army declined it because the small 10in wheels that helped the Mini maximise its interior space limited the runabout’s ground clearance.
Seeking another military buyer, Issigonis added to the vehicle’s cross-country capabilities by creating the twin-engine Moke 4 x 4. There’s some amusing Pathe footage of the designer driving a Moke fitted with a snow plough through a snowdrift.
At first, the Moke was offered at £475 and the only colour was spruce green — passenger seats, a heater and a windshield washer were extra. Contrary to popular belief, it was never sold in kit form.
Although it never found popularity as a utility vehicle, i t became a cult car, thanks in part to its prominent role in the TV classic The Prisoner. It was also a common sight in sunny resorts of the Caribbean and Australia.
T. McCann, Salisbury, Wilts. THE Moke was developed alongside the Mini saloon to try to fulfil an Army requirement for a lightweight, air portable vehicle. Prototypes emerged in January 1959 and were gradually developed through to 1963.
As the Moke wasn’t chosen for the Army contract, to recoup costs it was put into production as a civilian vehicle.
Production started at the end of 1963 and the Moke went on sale early in 1964. Production continued in Britain until 1968, by which time it had started being built in Australia in 1966.
After 1968, the Moke was produced only in Australia and continued until 1982. Production moved to the British Leyland plant in Setabul, Portugal, where the Moke continued to be built until 1993.
The Moke Club has published Moke, The History, available f rom the website moke club.org, Beaulieu National Motor Museum’s bookshop and Somerford Mini,
somerford-mini.co.uk
Graham Thomas, Moke Club, Kenilworth, Warks.
QUESTION
Growing up, we had Advent candles, not calendars. Were these a U.S. import?
THE Advent calendar was a German i mport. The Germans celebrated Christmas as a children’s holiday long before the rest of the world caught up and created many of the rituals around Advent, including the Christmas market.
The Advent calendar was an outgrowth of an old custom of using a chalk line to mark off the days from December 1 until Christmas. As most people could not read at the time, and even fewer had access to a calendar, many families would make a mark on the door on the first day of December and count off the days.
From the early 1800s, an Advent wreath was hung with Advent candles. This later developed into ‘treat wreaths’, which would contain 24 small bags containing gifts or sweets.
The first printed Advent calendar was made by Gerhard Lang (1881 to 1974). When he was a child, his mother made him an Advent calendar with 24 wibbele (sweets) stuck on cardboard.
Inspired by this, in 1908 when Lang was a partner in the printing office Reichhold & Lang, he produced pictures of treats and decorations that could be stuck on cardboard on each day in December.
This was the f i rst printed Advent calendar, though without windows to open. It was called the Christmas calendar or Munich Christmas calendar and quickly became a festive tradition. By 1912, Reichhold & Lang were producing versions with little doors to open.
At this time, the Sankt Johannis Printing Company started producing religious Advent calendars featuring scenes from the Nativity and religious verse.
Despite the success of Lang’s calendars, he was forced out of business due to World War II. Cardboard was rationed and it was forbidden to print calendars with pictures.
The German company Richard Sellmer Verlag resurrected the tradition in 1946 with a range of religious and seasonal designs, and still sells many thousands of Advent calendars.
The tradition soon caught on in Britain and the United States.
Mrs Teri Winterton, Horton Heath, Hants.
QUESTION
In the Just William stories, William is hugely embarrassed at being forced to join a Band of Hope meeting. Was this a genuine organisation?
FURTHER to earlier answers, when I was a young lad in Chester, with some pals of the same age I used to go to the local Temperance Hall — primarily because they had a film projector and each week showed a different Bowery Boys film.
We were charged 3d (three pence) each. Before the film, which wasn’t shown until the end to stop a mass exodus once it was over, there was a lecture about the perils of drink and we all had to sing this song: Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to pass a public house And take your money home. I was ten years old at the time.
Joe Fair, Bath.