Landships II

Hello,

Having learned about the survival of the 1914 Rolls Royce armoured car in India, one can't help but wonder if other 1914 cars survive in some hidden nook or cranny of the world. Has anyone attempted to track down the ultimate fate of each of these cars?

To try to gauge the magnitude of such a study, how many of the 1914 Admiralty Turret-equipped Rolls Royce Armoured Cars were built during WWI?


This website (below) indicates that at least 78 were in service by March 1915. This number may or may not have included RNAS cars of the earlier pattern that were reportedly re-equipped with the 1914 Pattern turreted armoured bodies.
Rolls Royce Armoured Cars - French website

During the First World War it appears that the British tried very hard to recover damaged cars both to prevent their re-use by the enemy and for repair or salvage. Still, at least one was captured from Dunsterforce by the Turks near the end of WWI and another car (or two?) probably fell into Russian hands from Lampson's squadron in Russia. What became of these vehicles?

1914 Pattern cars continued serving after the war. Looking at photos it appears that in the early 1920's their wire wheels and fenders were swapped out with ones similar to those found on the 1920 Pattern cars. In the mid 1920s the older 1914 and 1920 bodies serving in the Middle-East were moved onto a new Rolls Royce chassis. In 1940 they were moved again to a Fordson truck chassis. By mid 1941 these cars seem to disappear altogether - presumably scrapped.

What was the ultimate fate of these cars? Are there vehicle-specific records for these armoured cars that would allow one to track them from manufacture to their demise?

Mark

By the way, you can read more about Dunsterforce online at Google Books here:
Adventures of Dunsterforce

Kermit Roosevelt's book War in the Garden of Eden also has references and photos of these cars in Mesopotamia during WWI. Take a look here: War in the Garden of Eden