LWB123
17th March 2012, 05:52 PM
Hello from Brisbane.
I suppose for a few of us there are two kinds of history - Land Rover history and all other history....
Turning to the former, the most famous Land Rover in the world is undoubtedly HUE166, generally accepted to be the oldest Land Rover still in existence and well protected as part of the Land Rover heritage fleet in the UK. But what about SNX761 and SNX891 which should also be well recognised as the second and third most famous Land Rovers in no particular order?
As ‘Cambridge’ (SNX761) and ‘Oxford’ (SNX891) these two SWB wagons took part in what is probably the most celebrated expedition that ever involved Land Rovers - the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition or London to Singapore expedition as made famous in Tim Slessor’s book First Overland. A lot of Land Rover devotees know this part of their history pretty well, but what came of them as neither vehicle will be found in any museum or public collection?
There are a couple of reproductions doing the shows in the UK, but Peter Galilee writing in the February issue of Land Rover Owner International sought to answer the question of what happened to the originals and especially what role did Rover play in it as the actual owners of both – they were only on loan to the OCFEE and returned to the factory afterwards.
Turns out that one was last seen as a crashed wreck in Iran in 1957 (Cambridge) and the other is a pile of parts on St Helena Island in the Atlantic (‘Oxford’). How they came to that end is interesting reading.
Cheers,
I suppose for a few of us there are two kinds of history - Land Rover history and all other history....
Turning to the former, the most famous Land Rover in the world is undoubtedly HUE166, generally accepted to be the oldest Land Rover still in existence and well protected as part of the Land Rover heritage fleet in the UK. But what about SNX761 and SNX891 which should also be well recognised as the second and third most famous Land Rovers in no particular order?
As ‘Cambridge’ (SNX761) and ‘Oxford’ (SNX891) these two SWB wagons took part in what is probably the most celebrated expedition that ever involved Land Rovers - the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition or London to Singapore expedition as made famous in Tim Slessor’s book First Overland. A lot of Land Rover devotees know this part of their history pretty well, but what came of them as neither vehicle will be found in any museum or public collection?
There are a couple of reproductions doing the shows in the UK, but Peter Galilee writing in the February issue of Land Rover Owner International sought to answer the question of what happened to the originals and especially what role did Rover play in it as the actual owners of both – they were only on loan to the OCFEE and returned to the factory afterwards.
Turns out that one was last seen as a crashed wreck in Iran in 1957 (Cambridge) and the other is a pile of parts on St Helena Island in the Atlantic (‘Oxford’). How they came to that end is interesting reading.
Cheers,