The Man in the Old Photo

**Davo** · 13th March 2014, 12:20 AM

This picture has popped up on the Internet every so often, but I never could find out who it was.

But then someone posted it here, http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-ch...read-1643.html, and someone else said to contact James Taylor to try and figure out who this guy was, so I did.

He very kindly got back to me a couple of weeks ago, saying:

"Hi Dave,

Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you. I knew I'd seen the photo before but had to ask a couple of mates if they remembered where it was! The full story is in the LROC Review magazine for March 1961, but I don't have a copy here.

Essentially, this guy is called Ken Campbell. He left Ndola in Northern Rhodesia on 9 November 1960 and headed for Solihull, where he arrived on 3 January 1961. He drove through Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy and France, and apparently had the windscreen folded flat all the way from Uganda to England (where it was a bit colder at Dover in January). Co-driver was Joe Thwaites.

Thanks to Michael Bishop and (indirectly) John Carroll for helping out with that one!

With kind regards,
James Taylor"

And so, with the help of AULRO, I finally found out the story behind this great photo. Thanks!

**workingonit** · 13th March 2014, 10:11 AM

I was beginning to think it might be Colonel LeBlanc who went the reverse direction in 1949, UK to Ethiopia. But thanks for putting out of my misery.

**Chops** · 13th March 2014, 10:35 AM

So does anyone here have said copy of magazine to share the full story with us all

**S3ute** · 13th March 2014, 11:09 AM

Hello from Brisbane.

Thanks for the genuinely interesting follow through on the photo of Ken Campbell. Remarkable adventure.

There have been some truly interesting characters tooling around the world in old (then new) Land Rovers. The early 50s seems to have a real share of them and most seemed to be kitted out with little more than a beanie, blanket and a can opener. Occasionally took along a good woman..........., and in some cases the solo driver was a woman.

Not all long distance either - the Sani Pass (2873m) that links South Africa and Lesotho (below) by running straight up the face of the Drakensbergs to southern Africa's highest peak is one of the worlds' great mountain drives. It was essentially a native path that a local farmer with time on his hands and few natives to push decided to have a go at driving his 80" up and back on or improvised where the path disappeared.

Anyway, if the old time overland adventures are your thing you might like to take a look at:

Overland Live - The Blog about Overland Expedition Travel: Early Land Rover Expeditions - the 1950s

Cheers,

**digger** · 13th March 2014, 08:55 PM

Hows that then?

I put the photo up after I found it...

didnt know who it was..

and we share the same surname!

Thanks!

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The Man in the Old Photo

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