As per the other [JT] threads, this article was copied with permission from James Taylor's Rover facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/james.t.roverphile
It’s well known that the late Queen was a fan of the Rover P5 and its P5B successor. The very last P5B Saloon was delivered to her for personal use, and now lives in the British Motor Museum at Gaydon – but it was far from being the only one she had. Her own mother, the late Queen Mum, was also a P5 owner.
I recently did some research to see what is known about the cars they owned, and discovered that there seem to be some large gaps in the information available. So here’s what we know (or at least, what I know), and I’ve written about it here in the hope that somebody will be able to fill in the gaps.
Thanks for reading this post, which is a bit later than usual because of family activities around Christmas. It’s number 133 in the series that I started in July 2022. If you enjoy it, please click the “Like” button. If you want to share it or copy it, go ahead – but don’t forget to acknowledge where you found it, and remember that “shares” do not automatically copy over the Comments and therefore the pictures that are included in them.
THE ROYAL ROVERS
We have to remember that times were very different back in the 1950s, and even as recently as the 1980s. The reigning Monarch actually did drive herself from time to time, and apparently enjoyed it. The Royal Rovers often took her and other members of the family to outdoor sporting events, particularly equestrian ones, and they were often photographed in those circumstances. In later years, when she had the chance to drive herself, she moved on to a succession of Range Rovers – which were of course not unworthy substitutes for the big Rover Saloon.
Rover already had a foot in the door of the Royal Household by the time they introduced the P5 3-litre in 1958. They had been supplying Land Rovers since the time of King George VI, the late Queen’s father, and these had included the special State Review vehicles for the 1953-1954 Commonwealth Tour as well as several more ordinary examples that were used on the Royal estates.
The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and the late Queen’s husband, was very much a Land Rover fan. He famously designed a special Land Rover hearse to carry his own coffin, and was often seen at the wheel of one of the more mainstream models or of a Range Rover. Rover invited him to have a look round their Solihull factory in February 1958, when the P5 was in the final stages of preparation for its launch in the autumn. According to legend, the Duke was shown a scale model of the planned P5 Sportsman. He was very taken with this, and Rover decided to present it to him.
They appear to have requested that this story did not appear in the press. Not only was the P5 project still a secret, but the Sportsman (which later became the Coupé) was not to be released for another four years. Whether that scale model still exists in the Royal collection somewhere is something I don’t know. Nor have I been able to confirm beyond doubt the truth of the story about its presentation.
However, Rover clearly lost no time in following up. Once the 3-litre had been launched in October, they enquired through the usual channels whether the Royal Household might like to try one of the new cars on long-term loan. The answer was a no doubt gracious Yes, please. So an early 1959-model 3-litre Automatic in Black with Grey seats was selected for the job, with commission number 6309-00013. It was registered by Rover on 17 December 1958 as 3029 AC and was passed discreetly to its new “owners”, who appear to have kept it until early 1960 – so, just over a year. We know from surviving records that it was returned to Solihull and was then sold to somebody called Rickard on 25 March that year. Did its new owner know of its provenance? It may be that Royal protocol forbade Rover from telling him.
There then appears to have been a gap of a year or so before the next Rover was delivered to the Royal Household. This time, it was a Dark Green Saloon with Silver Grey upholstery, and it carried the registration number JGY 280. That would have been applied by the Royal Household themselves and, as we’ll see in a minute, it was a number they retained for many more years and transferred to other cars.
I haven’t yet been able to identify this first JGY 280 in the Rover records, but I believe it would have been supplied early in 1961. There is a Rover official picture of it that dates from the end of February or the beginning of March 1961, and the tax disc it displays is dated December 1961. That would be the expiry date of a year’s road fund tax that had started in January 1961. There is also a story about the car in the March 1961 issue of Rover News, the in-house newspaper, which says that it replaced a car of the same type for Her Majesty’s personal use.
That Rover News story also tells us a little about the specification of the car. It had power steering, which was still an option at this stage. It also had a number of special interior fittings. There was a recess in the rear centre armrest that contained a mirror, a notepad and a pencil. On the back of the front seat were a pouch and pockets for books and papers. Then there were thick curly pile overmats over the rear floor in a grey to match the upholstery, and the boot was carpeted in grey. All this makes it sound as if the car was intended to be chauffeur-driven at least part of the time, with Her Majesty sitting in the back. However, no doubt she did drive it herself when she felt like it.
The next known Royal 3-litre still survives as a museum piece at Sandringham. Registered as 155 HYU (in a sequence that was not otherwise issued as far as I can see), it is a Black Saloon with Grey upholstery and a bench front seat, dating from 1963. I presume it replaced the 1961 car and is a Mark IIA, and I imagine it is an automatic but have not been able to get close enough to find out for sure. Nor do I know its commission number.
After that, another 3-litre with the JGY 280 registration number appears in pictures taken at events where Her Majesty was present. At a guess, this one dates from around 1965; there were two years between the 1961 and 1963 cars, so another gap of two years would make sense. As I have only seen undated black-and-white pictures of this one, I can say only that it was definitely a MkII Saloon and, from the supposed date, probably a Mk IIc. More information would be welcome.
There is then a big jump before the next Royal P5 appears on the scene in 1971 – and it is of course a P5B rather than a 3-litre. I suspect there may have been one or more cars between JGY 280 The Second (supposedly in 1965) and this one, but I have not been able to trace them. The 1971 car had commission number 840-7057 and was finished in Dark Green according to the Despatch records held at Gaydon; that description suggests it was a non-standard colour. It left the assembly lines in January 1971, and I am sure I have seen pictures of a P5B wearing the registration number JGY 280K. My suspicion is that the car was given a K-suffix registration when those became available in order to make it stand out less when being driven on public roads (although it is highly unlikely that it was ever driven by the Queen without some sort of Police escort).
Finally, there’s the car that everybody knows, which is the one in the Gaydon museum. That reverted to the JGY 280 number, has commission number 841-00723D, and is painted in “T&N Dark Green” according to the Despatch records. I assume T&N was the paint manufacturer, but I haven’t yet tracked it down. This was the last-of-line P5B, built in June 1973 but retained on the assembly line until 13 July, presumably for special fittings to be added in the intervening three weeks. It was not actually delivered until 4 March 1974.
It’s well known that the late Queen was a fan of the Rover P5 and its P5B successor. The very last P5B Saloon was delivered to her for personal use, and now lives in the British Motor Museum at Gaydon – but it was far from being the only one she had. Her own mother, the late Queen Mum, was also a P5 owner.
I recently did some research to see what is known about the cars they owned, and discovered that there seem to be some large gaps in the information available. So here’s what we know (or at least, what I know), and I’ve written about it here in the hope that somebody will be able to fill in the gaps.
Thanks for reading this post, which is a bit later than usual because of family activities around Christmas. It’s number 133 in the series that I started in July 2022. If you enjoy it, please click the “Like” button. If you want to share it or copy it, go ahead – but don’t forget to acknowledge where you found it, and remember that “shares” do not automatically copy over the Comments and therefore the pictures that are included in them.
THE ROYAL ROVERS
We have to remember that times were very different back in the 1950s, and even as recently as the 1980s. The reigning Monarch actually did drive herself from time to time, and apparently enjoyed it. The Royal Rovers often took her and other members of the family to outdoor sporting events, particularly equestrian ones, and they were often photographed in those circumstances. In later years, when she had the chance to drive herself, she moved on to a succession of Range Rovers – which were of course not unworthy substitutes for the big Rover Saloon.
Rover already had a foot in the door of the Royal Household by the time they introduced the P5 3-litre in 1958. They had been supplying Land Rovers since the time of King George VI, the late Queen’s father, and these had included the special State Review vehicles for the 1953-1954 Commonwealth Tour as well as several more ordinary examples that were used on the Royal estates.
The late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and the late Queen’s husband, was very much a Land Rover fan. He famously designed a special Land Rover hearse to carry his own coffin, and was often seen at the wheel of one of the more mainstream models or of a Range Rover. Rover invited him to have a look round their Solihull factory in February 1958, when the P5 was in the final stages of preparation for its launch in the autumn. According to legend, the Duke was shown a scale model of the planned P5 Sportsman. He was very taken with this, and Rover decided to present it to him.
They appear to have requested that this story did not appear in the press. Not only was the P5 project still a secret, but the Sportsman (which later became the Coupé) was not to be released for another four years. Whether that scale model still exists in the Royal collection somewhere is something I don’t know. Nor have I been able to confirm beyond doubt the truth of the story about its presentation.
However, Rover clearly lost no time in following up. Once the 3-litre had been launched in October, they enquired through the usual channels whether the Royal Household might like to try one of the new cars on long-term loan. The answer was a no doubt gracious Yes, please. So an early 1959-model 3-litre Automatic in Black with Grey seats was selected for the job, with commission number 6309-00013. It was registered by Rover on 17 December 1958 as 3029 AC and was passed discreetly to its new “owners”, who appear to have kept it until early 1960 – so, just over a year. We know from surviving records that it was returned to Solihull and was then sold to somebody called Rickard on 25 March that year. Did its new owner know of its provenance? It may be that Royal protocol forbade Rover from telling him.
There then appears to have been a gap of a year or so before the next Rover was delivered to the Royal Household. This time, it was a Dark Green Saloon with Silver Grey upholstery, and it carried the registration number JGY 280. That would have been applied by the Royal Household themselves and, as we’ll see in a minute, it was a number they retained for many more years and transferred to other cars.
I haven’t yet been able to identify this first JGY 280 in the Rover records, but I believe it would have been supplied early in 1961. There is a Rover official picture of it that dates from the end of February or the beginning of March 1961, and the tax disc it displays is dated December 1961. That would be the expiry date of a year’s road fund tax that had started in January 1961. There is also a story about the car in the March 1961 issue of Rover News, the in-house newspaper, which says that it replaced a car of the same type for Her Majesty’s personal use.
That Rover News story also tells us a little about the specification of the car. It had power steering, which was still an option at this stage. It also had a number of special interior fittings. There was a recess in the rear centre armrest that contained a mirror, a notepad and a pencil. On the back of the front seat were a pouch and pockets for books and papers. Then there were thick curly pile overmats over the rear floor in a grey to match the upholstery, and the boot was carpeted in grey. All this makes it sound as if the car was intended to be chauffeur-driven at least part of the time, with Her Majesty sitting in the back. However, no doubt she did drive it herself when she felt like it.
The next known Royal 3-litre still survives as a museum piece at Sandringham. Registered as 155 HYU (in a sequence that was not otherwise issued as far as I can see), it is a Black Saloon with Grey upholstery and a bench front seat, dating from 1963. I presume it replaced the 1961 car and is a Mark IIA, and I imagine it is an automatic but have not been able to get close enough to find out for sure. Nor do I know its commission number.
After that, another 3-litre with the JGY 280 registration number appears in pictures taken at events where Her Majesty was present. At a guess, this one dates from around 1965; there were two years between the 1961 and 1963 cars, so another gap of two years would make sense. As I have only seen undated black-and-white pictures of this one, I can say only that it was definitely a MkII Saloon and, from the supposed date, probably a Mk IIc. More information would be welcome.
There is then a big jump before the next Royal P5 appears on the scene in 1971 – and it is of course a P5B rather than a 3-litre. I suspect there may have been one or more cars between JGY 280 The Second (supposedly in 1965) and this one, but I have not been able to trace them. The 1971 car had commission number 840-7057 and was finished in Dark Green according to the Despatch records held at Gaydon; that description suggests it was a non-standard colour. It left the assembly lines in January 1971, and I am sure I have seen pictures of a P5B wearing the registration number JGY 280K. My suspicion is that the car was given a K-suffix registration when those became available in order to make it stand out less when being driven on public roads (although it is highly unlikely that it was ever driven by the Queen without some sort of Police escort).
Finally, there’s the car that everybody knows, which is the one in the Gaydon museum. That reverted to the JGY 280 number, has commission number 841-00723D, and is painted in “T&N Dark Green” according to the Despatch records. I assume T&N was the paint manufacturer, but I haven’t yet tracked it down. This was the last-of-line P5B, built in June 1973 but retained on the assembly line until 13 July, presumably for special fittings to be added in the intervening three weeks. It was not actually delivered until 4 March 1974.
