Gents,
I’ve mentioned in several threads that I had a jeep friend in England (Wokingham Berkshire now, family home in Tunbridge Wells Kent) whose father was a DR. The friend’s name is Cliff Hart. His brother is Kenneth Hart, one of the earliest jeep restoration experts in the UK, from what I understand, and one of the lucky few owners of a Bantam BRC40.
Anyway, their father – Victor Hart – was a Sgt with the Royal Signals until 1943, when he took a commission from Sandhurst and was sent to Mogadishu, ending his service as a Major with the Royal West Kent regt.
Given my recent acquisition of a BSA WM20 and my budding enthusiasm for all things WD, he recently shared some period photos of his father with me, and has given me permission to share them here with the caveat that they are not re-published without his permission.
I know that Henk has thousands of period photos, and those are regularly rotated on the website and forum main pages. Since these photos are from Cliff's family’s personal collection, perhaps they haven’t been seen before.
According to Cliff, his dad was 23 years old in the “Balham” photos. In 1941, he was headquartered in Tunbridge Wells in a requisitioned house in Calverly Park. He’s apparently using that known fact and the white over blue Signals arm of service and dark (red) “41” serial number marking to determine that this is the 43rd RECCE (Wessex) Rgt being formed. Anybody have any thoughts on that? How about the white number starting with a “41” on the left hand side of the petrol tank in the "Balham" photo?
I like the blocky tread on the front tire!