Katy

Why Katy ?

My surname is Kendall so my Nickname at School was "Kenny" .. that was a long time before South Park ... Katy is Kenny's Toy.. KT... Katy

What is Katy ?

Katy is a 127 wheelbase ex Military Land Rover Ambulance converted to a Camper and with a 300 TDi engine.. She's 1/2 my age this year - her 26 and me ... well you do the maths

This is her parked in Catterick where she served in the Ambulance drivers strike

The Scots' Guards were kind enough to let us park on their parade ground again

She's recorded as Cream according to the DVLA, but according to an overlanding friend (Mandy)  the colour she had when we got her is called Limestone and "Limestone is the most photogenic and bestest colour a Landrover can be". However I'm not sure I agree and she's not that colour any more its a darker Cream which NATO call Light Stone that's very similar to some of the sandstone rocks of somerset as you can see below

Her "figure"
Height   2.8m    9'2"
Width   2.1m    7'
Length  5.5m    18'
Weight  TBC about 2.7 ton's

From her VIN
Geographical Region:        Europe
Country:                             United Kingdom
Manufacturer code:            Land Rover
Model:                                Defender (for early models: Ninety, or One Ten)
Wheel base:                       110 inch (Military)
Body type:                         2-door: Pickup, hood cab, truck cab, or soft/hard top
Engine type:                      3.5 litre V8 petrol, ca rburettor
Steering and transmission:  Right-hand drive (RHD), 5-speed manual (LT85, LT77, LT77S, R380 or other)
Model year:                      1985 to 1987
Assembly location:            Solihull, UK

From her Identity plate
Manfr.        M.C.E. is  Marshall of Cambridge Engineering
Serial No.  140078 is the actual production number of the vehicles bodywork [non land rover]
REG No.   63-KG-65 The military registration number
                   M.O.D use a completely separate reg system from DVLA.
Con No.     FVE 22B/882 The contract the vehicle/body was built for.

Marshalls of Cambridge are still a very large company. They have information on the history of their company ... Here

From her Military disposal form
Date into service                       27-Jan-1988
Date out of Service                   20-May-1998
Asset Code                                NB10464101
From                                         Army but as you can see includes RAF
Merlin Order                             E090213
NSN                                          2310-99-893-7291

NSN means Nato Stock Number 2310 indicates she is a "Passenger Motor Vehicle". 99 indicates she was made in the UK.The remaining seven digits are the unique code for this particular model/variant allocated by the UK Codification Authority.

Colour                                       White Gloss

Possibly from Use as a UN vehicle, or from being on-base, she's not always been white)

Listed as a Non Runner (hmm?)

From her Military record from DES

Colour White Gloss    Interesting – there is camouflage paint all over her underneath a very poor paint job
Barbus Ind                 N – I have No Idea what that means
Date in service          27-Jan-88
Date Cast                 27-Apr-98
Disposal Date           16-Jun-98

IV NO	IV DATE	UIN	UNIT TITLE	REC NO	REC DATE
		F5039A	RAF REGT DEPOT
500427	25-NOV-88	F6919A	RAF MANSTON	724	5-JAN-89
347	27-OCT-89	F5039A	RAF REGT DEPOT	999/91	15-NOV-89
999	3-JUL-92	CA005A	JSCS ASHCHURCH	A001769	3-JUL-92
A11857	23-SEP-93	A1073A	OP HANWOOD-YUGOSLAVIA	999/DAI	23-SEP-93
200	23-SEP-93	CA195A	OSU THETFORD	E50/093	22-OCT-93
069	5-JAN-94	A0916A	16 ARMD FD AMB RAMC	795F1	21-FEB-94
108	29-JUL-94	A0944A	23 PARA FIELD AMBULANCE	174H67	29-NOV-94
030	16-JUN-98	CQ700A	MVSL (DISPOSALS)	999M92	19-JUN-98

The Depot and disposal lines are fairly obvious – parked somewhere waiting for a new life as you will read below

RAF Manston is fairly self-explanatory, It's in not in existence as an RAF base any more (closed 1996), but it was in Ramsgate, Kent. What is nice is that it’s the RAF museum and the Spitfire and Hurricane museum and that probably gives us a really good reason for a trip down there and take some pictures of her “at home”

Op Hanwood was a humanitarian operation to Croatia ( part of  the former Yugoslavia), it was not at first clear whether she went given the dates, but that has now been confirmed with some pictures of Katy in Croatia see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/its-official.html

In an article from LRO entitled "Defender Ambulances in Croatia" Bob Morrison records that

24 Airmobile Field Ambulance went to provide medical support as part of UNPROFOR 1 from a base in Zagreb Croatia for 6 months. They were part of the British Medical Batallion of the United Nations Protection Force (BRITMEDBAT of UNPROFOR in military speak), Whilst having a headquarters in Zagreb they were also based at Vukovar, Daruvar, Topusko and Knin. They originally took a mixed fleet of 101's and 109's. This article includes pictures of a Marshalls 127 a Locomotors 127 and a Jordanian Series III Ambulance which looks like it is a Lomas Conversion

In another article titled "While Bullets Fly" Land Rover Military Portfolio (articles reprinted from LRO Magazine) Bob Morrison says that

The 127's which had been in mothballed depots waiting for another war were taken out there to replace the worn out 101's after media reporting and campaigning by Paddy Ashdown MP.

This would be consistent with the information above. It is this article that has 2 pictures of Katy in Croatia

According to the article by 24 Airmobile Field Ambulance were followed in Croatia by 4 Armoured Field Brigade. It is also noteworthy that both Locomotors and Marshalls ambulances are present in the pictures in this article

One of the pictures of Katy in Croatia in the LRO Article is also used in a colour form in Modern Military Land Rovers: In Colour, 1971-1994 by James Taylor and Bob Morrison

I am now able to share these pictures as described in http://landroverkaty.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/katy-in-uniform.html

On a later record in the history where it is recorded that on 29th July 1994 she was allocated to 23 PARA FIELD AMBULANCE

I have determined that 23 PARACHUTE FIELD AMBULANCE RAMC did humanitarian work in Rwanda in 1994 in OPERATION GABRIEL in what sounds like an awful situation. It is recorded here  http://www.paradata.org.uk/units/23-parachute-field-ambulance-ramc and with a fuller write up http://www.paradata.org.uk/events/rwanda-operation-gabriel.

The dates of that action ties up well with the date of Katy's allocation to that unit. It would be wonderful if she was involved there as well. I had some indication that was possible from a veteran of that campaign which is shown HERE

Post her military career Katy has undergone some changes

From Receipts of conversion work

Engine, Gearbox etc and Solar Panel fitted in 2001

From Receipts for return to UK
From Cape Town             05-Sept-2003
To Southampton               27-Sept-2003

After that we have the dates of some sales and the MOT Certificates, but that's not so interesting

From various part numbers
Engine                        21L33955A which is a 300TDi engine from a Series 1 Discovery
New Gearbox                    
New Transfer Box             
            
Old Gearbox                     55A 0375745 J which is a standard Disco R380 gearbox
Old Transfer Box              20D 048141 B which makes it a 1:1.67 ratio transfer box which explains why we ran out of revs before we got up to speed

There is a good Land Rover Ambulance summary history available via EMLRA ... Here

More will be added as I learn it 

Please do leave some comments if you like what you are reading or find it useful.