Staff car, Bulford 1920; Lt Col Austin Digan Connaught Rangers (??)

[Moonraker]

I would appreciate knowing the name and model of this staff car, please. The back of this card is annotated "King Camp  Bulford Dec  19th/20  A Digan".

I take "King" to mean "Sling Camp" which was contiguous with Bulford Camp. "A Digan" could be any of the three men, and if he were the officer perhaps his rank could have been given? I have found Lieutenant Colonel Austin Digan of the Connaught Rangers, but have yet to place him at Bulford. Whoever, a senior officer based  there in the immediate postwar years would have found the appointment challenging, dealing initially with disturbances caused by delays in repatriating New Zealanders.

The barracks became a shambles, with British soldiers desperate to get out of the Army wandering around in civilian clothing and new recruits yet to be issued with uniforms. There were many swindles, including selling army petrol to local taxi-drivers. Involved in the last was the so-called 'Monocled Mutineer', Percy Toplis, deserter and confidence man, who, in two of the many roles he assumed, walked around the barracks in Royal Air Force and sergeant-major’s uniforms. He fled the area after killing one of the taxi-drivers involved in the swindles and was finally trapped and shot by police in Scotland.

Edited 8 December , 2023 by Moonraker

[Waddell]

I think it is a 16/20 Sunbeam Terry.

Have a look here-

https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/vintage-sunbeam.htm

and here bottom of the page-

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/Transport/Cars/Sunbeam/Coatalen.htm

An early post-war version below-

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/Transport/Cars/Sunbeam/AfterTheWar.htm

Scott

 

 

[Great War Truck]

I would agree with Sunbeam as well. They were also made by Rover.

[Moonraker]

Thanks for your informed advice. Googling led to photographs of other Sunbeams in military service and this website. 'The Government commandeered nearly all Sunbeam output from April 1915, “The Empire First, Private Orders After”; thence they supplied staff cars, ambulances, aero-engines and planes throughout the war – maintaining profits along the way.'

Naively I'd wondered whether in my photograph the protrusions from the front mudguards were for a senior officer's pennants, but I realise now that they are spigots for side lamps. I'm surprised that the passenger in the front (presumably an Other Rank) was allowed to wear his hat at such a jaunty angle.

"A  Digan" appears not have been the Connaught Ranger of that name, as he had probably returned to Civvy Street by the end of 1920. (He died in a drowning accident in 1925.) He's mentioned several times in this 2007 thread.