No one told about this bit of our website when I volunteered. So. What to say / own up to?
I’ve been in the EMLRA since 1997-ish and was on the committee and Newsletter Editor for the period 2001-2010. Many years later, after the loss of Jeff as our Chairman, I was asked, asked again and eventually arm-wrestled into taking the role over. Clearly everyone has forgotten what I did on the committee the first time around, so let’s see how long it takes anyone to notice this time…
Despite just about everything changing in life since I joined (geographic location, marital status, children), two things have remained constant. I’ve owned my 1980 RAF Ambulance since 1995 and my 110GS V8 since 2001. There was also an ex-RAF 1976 109GS in the late Eighties and a 101FC Ambulance in 1999 for three years along with a slow-rotating cast of normal Land Rovers as the daily driver, but the Ambulance and 110 have been the constants. The Ambulance is a brilliant exhibit (and over-sized Dinky toy) and the 110 is just such a useful Thing to have available.
You’re unlikely to see me at the Big Events, although I have done the NEC Classic Car Show many times. Oddly, it’s the NEC where I have met the Ambulance’s driver from Exercise Bold Grouse, its mechanic from RAF Cranwell and another Cranwell medic who’d sat on the offside front wing and dished it (it’s still that shape). Generally, however, I prefer the smaller, local show where either very little happens beyond coffee and ice-cream, or someone finds you who remembers using this sort of thing and you’ve just made their day.
Land Rovers: it’s a Condition!