I recently bought a 1956 Land Rover, one of the first 88" models, and have discovered it is ex-military, and I am slowly putting together evidence that suggests a rather interesting history, but it is really a struggle.
I know it was sent from Rover to the Ministry of Supply on 21st June 1956, and that from there it went to 42 AVD Handforth date into service 27th June 1956 as 83BR48, together with 83BR25 and 83BR53 which shared the same date and Receipt Voucher HAN/R/301/60B, so I am told they went to the same unit. It was one of 2000 vehicles on order 6/VEH/22633 which spanned Rover Mk 3 and Rover Mk 5.
While 83BR25 and 83BR53 served a fairly normal term of 7 and 8 years (though the former was struck off at Middle East Command), my example was struck-off in August 1958 going back to the ministry of supply. Needless to say there are no record carsd for these vehicles, in fact I think RLC only has one record card for the whole of 6/VEH/22633.
A clue as to the unusual exit to Ministry of Supply is that the tub has tie-down points in the back, unlike any available as standard parts, and made and fitted exactly as per the EMER dated January 1957 (EMER Q 027 Mod Instr No 5 Jan 1957) and a modification specific to vehicles that are to be air-dropped. One loops survives, but the holes exist for the 5 others.
Air-drop was in a fairly experimental phase during 1956-1958. The Suez crisis was on and the Beverley had just entered service. Certainly by the El Gamil raid in Nov 1956 the Medium Stressed Platform hadn't yet been approved for the Beverley, and they had to resort to using Halifaxes to drop jeeps using drop platforms said to be from a museum. Air-drop experiments were being carried out by AATDC and A&AEE using the Boscombe Down Beverley XB261, and Boscombe Down was a Ministry of Supply site until the MoS was wound up in 1959.
Records from Ruddington include mention of the sale of Land Rovers damaged in air-drops.
At present the most likely answer to its history is that is was damaged in an air drop experiment carried out by Boscombe Down, and the army said 'you bent it, you pay for it' and it then became a MoS problem that was either sold by them directly through Ruddington as beyond economic repair, or potentially it was repaired and used as a site vehicle. It did come fitted with a 1971 military BCF fire extinguisher mounted upright on the passenger door pillar, which is unusual if it was sold off into civilian service.
I then have a huge gap from the point where it was struck-off in 1958 until 1985 when it was taken on as a project without any registration information, and was allocated an age-related number. No military unit marking were visible then, and I haven't found any. It appears to have had an extensive rebuild in the past including 86" wings, bonnet, screen, so it has clearly suffered some sort of trauma. There is also a dent in the front cross-member.
Research is on-going, as is a rolling repair. It is just another Rover Mk 5 GS, so hardly worthy of restoration as a military example as there are a few lovely original examples about, but the strange history really is something I would love to find some more about ... and maybe my 1 + 1 = 3 has missed some other explanation. I am still digging in the records for any clues.
Steve