Rolls Royce based caravans & caravanning
Jan 27, 2023 13:52:18 GMT 10
cobber, shesgotthelook, and 2 more like this
Post by Don Ricardo on Jan 27, 2023 13:52:18 GMT 10
Good morning ladies and gentlemen,
As this is a post about an important topic of some gravity I feel we should begin by showing appropriate decorum. Please be seated.
We have previously been made aware here of a Romany Road motor caravan built in 1938 on a Rolls Royce chassis for a Mr G R Nicholas. A photo of this imposing vehicle was published in the Melbourne Australasian newspaper on Saturday, 19 February 1938 (page 41):
(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144367933 )
'G R Nicholas', for whom the caravan was built, was George Richard Rich Nicholas, a pharmacist who developed the Aspro during World War I when supplies of aspirin were no longer available from the German company Bayer. The Nicholas family became wealthy off the back of the world wide sales of Aspro, and also became well known philanthropists. And I guess he could well afford a caravan built on a Rolls chassis!
However, there were also other examples of caravans built on Rolls Royce chassis, or being towed by Rolls Royces. Two examples have been sent to us by Tom Clarke in the UK, via Woody99 (Andrew Woodmansey). Tom is the co-author with David Neely of a book entitled Rolls-Royce and Bentley in The Sunburnt Country.
The first example from Tom is this motor caravan built on a 1926 20hp Rolls Royce that has had its wheelbase and chassis frame extended to take the caravan:
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_A.jpg)
As Woody99 observed, the Holden in the background of the second photo indicates that the two photos were taken no earlier than 1948 after the release of the 48/215 model Holden. According to Tom: "caravan fitted pre-1948. Mrs M. Barkham of Melbourne owned [the Rolls Royce] 1928-39 at least so she might have had the conversion done unless it was the next owner John Bailey, Hampton, Vic., from 1948 to the late 1950s. If Bailey had it a bit earlier, or the conversion was done a bit later, then Bailey would be the caravan connection."
.jpg)
As this is a post about an important topic of some gravity I feel we should begin by showing appropriate decorum. Please be seated.
We have previously been made aware here of a Romany Road motor caravan built in 1938 on a Rolls Royce chassis for a Mr G R Nicholas. A photo of this imposing vehicle was published in the Melbourne Australasian newspaper on Saturday, 19 February 1938 (page 41):
(Source: National Library of Australia nla.gov.au/nla.news-article144367933 )
'G R Nicholas', for whom the caravan was built, was George Richard Rich Nicholas, a pharmacist who developed the Aspro during World War I when supplies of aspirin were no longer available from the German company Bayer. The Nicholas family became wealthy off the back of the world wide sales of Aspro, and also became well known philanthropists. And I guess he could well afford a caravan built on a Rolls chassis!
However, there were also other examples of caravans built on Rolls Royce chassis, or being towed by Rolls Royces. Two examples have been sent to us by Tom Clarke in the UK, via Woody99 (Andrew Woodmansey). Tom is the co-author with David Neely of a book entitled Rolls-Royce and Bentley in The Sunburnt Country.
The first example from Tom is this motor caravan built on a 1926 20hp Rolls Royce that has had its wheelbase and chassis frame extended to take the caravan:
As Woody99 observed, the Holden in the background of the second photo indicates that the two photos were taken no earlier than 1948 after the release of the 48/215 model Holden. According to Tom: "caravan fitted pre-1948. Mrs M. Barkham of Melbourne owned [the Rolls Royce] 1928-39 at least so she might have had the conversion done unless it was the next owner John Bailey, Hampton, Vic., from 1948 to the late 1950s. If Bailey had it a bit earlier, or the conversion was done a bit later, then Bailey would be the caravan connection."
The second example of a Rolls Royce being used for camping provided by Tom is this 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom towing a camper trailer:
According to Tom: "This one shows the 1929 Phantom I chassis 127WR but wearing its ca 1934 re-body, a Martin & King saloon. The photo with the caravan is 1950s which is when it was owned by Maxwell C. Johannessen of Traralgon in Victoria."
To round off this post we have this photo of a Rolls Royce (or is it...sniff...just a Bentley?) towing a 1959 Road Cruiser caravan:
The car and caravan belonged to the grandfather of the Rigby family in Mildura, and was purchased by MarkT in 2008 before being later sold.
Someone can probably tell me whether the Rigby vehicle in the photo is a Rolls or a Bentley by looking at the hub caps?
Thanks to Woody99 and Tom Clarke for the interesting photos and information they've provided for this post. Does anyone know of any other Australian Rolls Royce based caravans or rigs?
Don Ricardo