Looking After the Elderly
Measuring the march of time with a '53 Land Rover Series 1 80".
Curating an antique vehicle certainly puts the passage of time in perspective. This year was the '53 Land Rover Series 1 80" I drive's 70th birthday. We celebrated by having it TÜVed through January 2025. "Yuey" has certainly had an interesting life so far, and seems to have enjoyed the past four years back in Germany. A 70-year-old vehicle when I was born would've been the first series-produced car ever made.
The truck was manufactured as “Car 10CWT 4x4 Land Rover 2 Litre” / “Truck ¼ Ton 4x4 GS Rover Mk2“ from Air Ministry Contract 6/Veh/10185 for 502 vehicles, chassis number 36102446; RAF Blue Grey in colour with grey seats and a khaki hood. It served with the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) as 44 AA 91 in 953 Signals Unit (SU), No. 5 (Signals) Wing, Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF), stationed at RAF Butzweilerhof, Cologne, Germany. Also in Hohrod, Alsace, France, in the Vosges mountains above the Rhein near the Colmar-Meyenheim air base. I've done a bit more research into what Yuey would've been doing in Germany and France in the 1950s, and have a strong suspicion that it had something to do with the the "Gee" (grid) aircraft navigation system.
It returned to England, then had 4th-line repair (complete overhaul) M.T.R.S. B266, WV3/206, and was modified to “Truck Glider Retrieving”. In 1968, it was de-mobbed from the RAF and sold off at Ruddington Depot, Nottinghamshire, England, and registered as civilian YJH780F, a Hertfordshire area registration. It was completely restored 2010-2012 and registered with age-appropriate plate 409YUE. I bought it in 2018, and made minor modifications to have it pass German technical inspection (TÜV) such that it could be registered as historic vehicle HG-UE 53H.
I'm a member of the Land Rover Series One Club , which is for owners of all Series 1 vehicles 1948-1958, for which I have a static window sticker (they have an enameled metal emblem as well, but I find it a bit too modern). But because Yuey is a '53, I was eligible for the even more exclusive Land Rover Register 1948-1953 for owners of the rare original 80" versions.
From 44AA91 to YJH780F to 409YUE to HG-UE53H, and back and forth between the UK and Germany, Yuey's certainly put a lot of smiles on people's faces over the decades. I'm privileged to be the vehicle’s curator at present.
