(Image: Nick Ansell/PA Wire)
On Monday 19th September, our nation joined together in solidarity to mourn the loss of our Queen Elizabeth II. What a truly memorable day and one that none of us will ever forget. To commemorate her life, this week our Stourbridge Automotive team thought it would be poignant to feature a piece on her love for the traditional British brand, the Land Rover.
Originally designed in 1947 by Maurice Wilks who at the time was Rover’s chief designer, the Land Rover prototype was created by using Jeep chassis and components. Following the design, the first Land Rover was officially launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948.
It was in 1951, that Land Rover was granted a Royal Warrant by King George VI (the Queen’s father) and then 50 years later, during 2001, Land Rover received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for outstanding contribution to international trade.
Land Rover gave a sense of freedom
Throughout her lifetime, the Queen would often be pictured driving her particular favourite – the old Land Rover Defender vehicles around the estates of Sandringham, Windsor Great Park and Balmoral. Perhaps her love for the vehicle came from her father’s interest in her earlier years or maybe it was the fact that she felt a sense of freedom when driving, in contrast to the grandeur of her regular life commitments.
In more recent years, she toured Cardiff Millennium Stadium in 2015 in an adapted Land Rover and then celebrated her 90th birthday in 2016 by parading the streets of Windsor in a Range Rover hybrid.
To view more historic images which beautifully capture the Queen and her love for Land Rover, please click here to view an image gallery recently produced by the coventrytelegraph.net.
For Land Rover and Range Rover owners across the West Midlands, Stourbridge Automotive is here to assist with Land Rover and Range Rover servicing, vehicle repairs and maintenance. To find out more, please contact our team or see our website for further details.
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