Recently I was invited by Mike Sheppard, Chairman of the Canterbury Combined 4WD Clubs, to attend the Basil Phelps skills competition day where I was introduced to ‘Oxford’ arguably the most famous ‘Series’ Land Rover in the world.
I must admit that I wasn’t even aware of Oxford until that day, but after having seen it and researched it, I felt that its story needed to be told.
That story started back in 1955, well before I was born. Six undergraduates from Oxford and Cambridge universities in the UK, were recruited for a scientific expedition in which they would drive from London to Singapore, overland. This had been attempted before but up until this point, none of these attempts had been successful.
OLD SKOOL TIES
Land Rover sponsored the trip and provided two Series One short-wheel-based Land Rovers, one known as ‘Oxford’ and the other ‘Cambridge’, painted light blue and dark blue, representing the respective universities’ colours. Members of the team did not know each other before the venture and were chosen for their individual skills, from mechanical, geographical through to medical knowledge. The 30,000 km Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition was born...
The trip took an arduous six months and the team succeeded in reaching Singapore. This was really a truly remarkable feat and one that could not be replicated today due to the geo-political nature of some of the countries they originally travelled through.
THE END? NOT QUITE!
The story seemed to end there, however nearly 60 years later, Adam Bennet, a British property investor, began a quest to find one of the two Land Rovers, the Oxford.
I have no idea how he did it, but he eventually tracked it down on the remote island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, where – apparently – the globe-trotting Series 1 had been left by a wildlife research group.
Having found the vehicle, Adam managed to negotiate its purchase by trading it for a later model Land Rover and had it shipped back to the UK. By 2018, the vehicle had been completely restored, retaining its original body panels, and stripped back to show its original body paint and decals, and in an amazing act of selflessness and generosity of spirit, Adam gifted Oxford back to the men who had completed the amazing Overlanding Expedition in 1955, for one last adventure.
Sadly, some of the original team had passed away, and the route had to be changed slightly, due to politics and conflicts, but the adventure succeeded in taking a 64-year-old vehicle through 23 countries and covering over 30,000kms.
Oxford was in New Zealand and attending various shows including the National Land Rover Owners rally based at the big Wheels at Wanaka show over Easter before being shipped from Lyttleton to Australia for its next adventure.
And next time you look at a tired old Series One in a farmer’s field, remember what six young students managed to achieve. Remarkable. Truly remarkable!
