Thread: ROYAL VISIT 1954 and landrovers

I like that front bumper

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Given the similarities with the numbers on the vehicles in the REMLR records, and understanding the pace of the 1954 Royal Tour with 2,000 miles by road in 207 individual trips and visits to all capitals excluding Darwin. It is therefore likely that there were a set of Royal Tour Land Rovers pre-positioned in all capitals and handled by each of the Master Distributors . Nevertheless the picture at the head of this thread refers to the Sydney Daily Telegraph article so likely depicts one of the Grenville Motors vehicles mentioned.

There were a number of LRs supplied by Rover for the 54 tour. They were converted in the UK & some (prob 6) were supplied to AU. The log of the position of each vehicle each night during the tour is in the NLA. They were the property of Rover, just lent. They were moved around in mostly in pairs, because every use needed a backup. They returned to Grenvilles after the tour & were sold. One at least was advertised for sale in Canberra.

Attached article that I have written tells some of the story, but needs updating as I now have more info.

I like the hub caps, too

That was interesting. What are your updates?
Referring to post 23 by fc110

Originally Posted by fc110

There were a number of LRs supplied by Rover for the 54 tour. They were converted in the UK & some (prob 6) were supplied to AU. The log of the position of each vehicle each night during the tour is in the NLA. They were the property of Rover, just lent. They were moved around in mostly in pairs, because every use needed a backup. They returned to Grenvilles after the tour & were sold. One at least was advertised for sale in Canberra.

Attached article that I have written tells some of the story, but needs updating as I now have more info.

Thank you for that article!

As I mentioned before it seems that not all the Land Rovers came through Grenville Motors and there is a possibility that the others were not dissassembled and re-painted.

The vehicles listed for Hobart would have come through Regent Motors in Melbourne and carried Commonwealth plates C*75979 and C*75980 with chassis and engine numbers included in article.

The vehicles for Brisbane would have come through Annand & Thompson and those for Perth through Fauls.

If the REMLR chassis numbers are correct and at least 2 are confirmed by the NAA records for Hobart and there are an additional 4 vehicles in the Grenville Motors records, (which have been confirmed by an engineer manager at Grenville's working there at the time), then the list of 10 different vehicles in Australia are most likely correct.

I have updated the info in my original post with the additional information from the Grenville records.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

The 1954 86" Land Rovers for the 1954 Royal Tour were dismantled, re-painted and rebuilt as basic models then sold. The chassis numbers were:

• 47160021 engine 47100175 C*75921 - Sold 31/5/54 to G.A Bailey
• 47160022 engine 47100173 C*75918 - Sold 4/5/54 to Leeton Safety Centre
• 47160023 engine 47100174 C*75919 - Sold 4/5/54 to H Ryves
• 47160024 engine 47100176 C*75920 - Sold 26/5/54 to Genges George

....

Regards Easo

G'day Folks

During the VP95 festivities in Brisbane there was a reveue of military vehicles at Mt.Gravatt Showgrounds which was reveiwed by a retired Brigadier in which I took part,parked up beside the main building was a Royal Reveiw Series 1 80" Rover in "Royal Claret" from memory I think it may have been 174-696 as it also had red interior.

I think that 123rover50 was also at that display.

cheers