This year, the British Red Cross and Land Rover celebrate their 70th anniversary of partnership. Starting with a Series I converted into a mobile dispensary in 1954, Land Rover has sent hundreds of vehicles around the world with the Red Cross. To celebrate this moment, the British Red Cross have built a museum into a Defender 110, which has been dubbed “Britain’s Smallest Museum.”
The Defender is parked up in London’s South Bank for the week, and the museum covers every part of the vehicle. The exterior has a wrap with images from the Red Cross/Land Rover partnership over the years, with pictures of Series and Defender vehicles at work in all corners of the world. The roof rack is piled with equipment the Red Cross uses in an emergency, from water containers to bags of provisions.
On the dashboard in the passenger’s seat is a display about that first Red Cross Land Rover from 1954. Four Series I vehicles were turned into mobile dispensaries and ambulances and sent to Kenya with a nurse to serve remote communities. Another exhibit features a medical kit used during a Ethiopian famine caused by a locust plague between 1978-80. Pictures drawn by Yugoslavian children reflect upon the Red Cross’ role in providing help to people on all sides of the area’s 1990s conflicts. More pictures remember the work the Red Cross did pushing Defenders through flooding in Turks and Caicos in the wake of hurricanes. British home grown help is shared through pictures of Red Cross Defenders wading through flood waters during massive floods that hit the UK between 2007 and 2013.
The Defender is called "Britain's smallest museum," though in a country that thrives on the eccentrically superlative, it wouldn't be surprising if there's something even smaller somewhere in the country. It can handle five visitors at once – in the vehicle's five seats – with more taking in the exterior displays. In addition to the roof rack and items on display in the passenger compartment, there are displays in the cargo area visible from outside the vehicle.
That’s not the end of the celebrations for Land Rover and the Red Cross. Land Rover Classic, the vintage vehicle restoration arm of the company, is working on restoring a Series IIA ambulance once used by the Red Cross. The project is not done yet, but the in-progress restoration was on display at The Goodwood Revival alongside a Defender 130 donated to the Red Cross in North Wales in honor of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. It took a break from patrolling Anglesey and Snowdonia to attend the show and celebrate the partnership. Presumably, we can look forward to images of the completed Series IIA ambulance restoration in the relatively near future.
The Land Rover and Red Cross/Red Crescent partnership is one of the longest-lasting automotive partnerships, one which has run through every iteration of Land Rover’s history, and reinforces the Defender as a working vehicle, even in its latest iteration. These celebrations show that it remains a strong partnership, and there are many years ahead of Land Rovers working for the greater good.
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