Any WW1 lorry experts out there?

[Luckyone]

My dad & uncle are doing some family tree research & have this picture of a relative & his squad from some time in WW1. They were trying to work out where this picture would have been taken & wondered if the make of lorry could help give an idea to the likely country.

[Keep it stiff]

This of course was the era when many commercial bodies were still being built bespoke. Also, much of what the army used was commandeered which meant that all sorts of stuff from different industries were taken into service. I spent some years working for a removal business, some great archives had been retained which included lists of motor-powered pantechnicons and horses requisitioned from them for military service.

[fourfoldroot]

Thornycroft J- types were used alot with all sorts of bodies.
Edited to add... if you post the pic on the hmvf.co.uk forum they will soon identify it and will probably know regiment and whereabouts. They know their stuff!

Edited by fourfoldroot on Friday 29th May 15:53

[V8FGO]

Possibly a london B1 bus, several stylles of use from pidgeon lofts to cinemas.
Looking at the group they all look to be officers, perhaps it was officer transport or a mobile officers
mess perhaps.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36531984

[Riley Blue]

Could that be one of the Pyramids in the background?

[Mike-tf3n0]

Probably was somewhere middle eastern given all the solar topees in evidence.

[Luckyone]

All very interesting replies thanks!

I couldn't find the email from my dad when posting the picture but have now & he said "Sid Drake served in the Royal Horse Artillery but there is some doubt if he went to Egypt with his unit or stayed in Salonica"

So an interesting comment about the pyramids, could well be!

I had to google solar topees (a sun-protecting helmet), again would tie into Egypt, but it gets quite hot in Salonica too.

Also interesting about the London busses, I'd been reading about how they had sent them out doing some home schooling with my son, but I hadn't seen that BBC link, some good pictures in that too, some do look very similar.

Also thanks for the info on the hmvf.co.uk site I'll investigate that more too.

Edited by Luckyone on Saturday 30th May 10:41

[aeropilot]

Luckyone said:

My dad & uncle are doing some family tree research & have this picture of a relative & his squad from some time in WW1. They were trying to work out where this picture would have been taken & wondered if the make of lorry could help give an idea to the likely country.

I can say, its almost certainly NOT in the UK or on the Western Front in France/Belgium by the uniforms.

Given the pith helmets, its somewhere hot, so Eastern Med, North Africa/Egypt, Iraq....?

Edited by aeropilot on Saturday 30th May 10:06

[Glosphil]

I have a picture somewhere of my father, then a sergeant in the RAF, standing in front of a mobile office in Ismailia, Egypt. Taken in 1948/9 close to the Suez canal.
The mobile office looks like that shown but is a trailer.

[aeropilot]

Luckyone said:

I couldn't find the email from my dad when posting the picture but have now & he said "Sid Drake served in the Royal Horse Artillery but there is some doubt if he went to Egypt with his unit or stayed in Salonica"

If he was RHA, I'd say its Egypt, unless he was transferred out of the RHA.

I also can't find any evidence in a quick search that the RHA were ever in the Salonica campaign. They aren't listed as being in any of the divisions that fought in that campaign.

[838HNK]

This looks like the place to ask - http://hmvf.co.uk. - Pre WW2 section

This has a link to India - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintage-cars-classi... with some good leads...

Also the Thornycroft collection lives in Milestones in Basingstoke. They also have an extensive online archive and I searched for military and came up with .. Photograph, black and white, showing an illustration of 40 HP J Type standard military lorry, built by Thornycroft, Worting Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire - I live on the Old Worting Road !!

https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/collection/tra...

The other good news is the recreated street has a Gales Ales pub ... and its licensed and also have a Gordon Keeble on view sometimes ..

Edited by 838HNK on Saturday 30th May 14:02

Edited by 838HNK on Saturday 30th May 14:07

[lowdrag]

A complete deviation from the O/P, but nevertheless. Being a Hampshire lad, Gales Ales were from Horndean i seem to recall. Hartridges, the soft drinks company, were from Hambledon. Being in the darts team in the 60s, we tried to avoid playing away against them since their beer was like Marmite - you liked it or you didn't. And we didn't!

[838HNK]

Continuing the left turn ... but I think they have one of your lorries as well ....

[david.h]

Looks like a photo of the Officers in a unit/ sub unit....possibly a Battery..
The definition is not good enough to see the badges nor the soldier on the right who may be in some sort of ceremonial dress....
Traditionally photos would often have been taken with some sort of reference to the unit's equipment
Hope that helps. If he was in the Artillery then the RA Museum at Larkhill would be interested and might be able to help

[aeropilot]

david.h said:

Looks like a photo of the Officers in a unit/ sub unit....possibly a Battery..
The definition is not good enough to see the badges nor the soldier on the right who may be in some sort of ceremonial dress....
Traditionally photos would often have been taken with some sort of reference to the unit's equipment
Hope that helps. If he was in the Artillery then the RA Museum at Larkhill would be interested and might be able to help

OP has already confirmed in one of the posts that its RHA, and spurs being visible would support that.

[Luckyone]

aeropilot said:

david.h said:

Looks like a photo of the Officers in a unit/ sub unit....possibly a Battery..
The definition is not good enough to see the badges nor the soldier on the right who may be in some sort of ceremonial dress....
Traditionally photos would often have been taken with some sort of reference to the unit's equipment
Hope that helps. If he was in the Artillery then the RA Museum at Larkhill would be interested and might be able to help

OP has already confirmed in one of the posts that its RHA, and spurs being visible would support that.

Yes that’s right RHA, its the history of our relatives they are try to find more about so the RA museum sounds like a good lead. I have found the contact details for that & will pass it on to them.

I sent them a link to this thread too & my dad wanted to thank everyone for your contributions & suggestions.