Driving from London to Singapore is still an undertaking today, requiring careful route planning and plenty of gear for emergencies even if you're taking the (mostly) paved route. But back in 1955 you may well have been driving from London to Mars. Forget about service stations with hot dogs — you would need to carry your own gasoline for large stretches of the trip, and you weren't exactly guaranteed your specified octane rating. You also weren't guaranteed bridges across rivers.
What vehicles were fit for such an arduous overland trek? Land Rover was still young in 1955 — the company was founded less than a decade prior — but two Land Rover 86" station wagons (designated so for the 86-inch wheelbase) were up to the task, embarking on the first ever overland expedition from London to Singapore that took approximately six months. Named "Oxford" and "Cambridge" and piloted by six students from the two British universities of the same name, the Land Rovers took part in the heavily publicized trip, with Sir David Attenborough creating three films for the BBC about the trip itself. In 1957 a book titled "First Overland" was written by one of the participants, Tim Slessor, and is considered a classic of expedition literature.
As for the Land Rovers themselves, upon their return to the U.K. "Oxford" was used by the British Ornithologists' Union for an expedition on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic — one of the most remote British outposts to this day — last in the news in 1982 during the Falklands War. The Land Rover stayed on Ascension Island, and eventually came into the ownership of a support worker who lived on the island. The worker eventually upgraded to a later 88" model, and used parts from "Oxford" to keep the newer Land Rover running — Land Rover parts are a little sparse on Ascension Island. Upon his retirement he took his vehicles to the even more remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. At that point "Oxford" faded from view.
Typically, this would have been the end of it, even though cars on remote islands usually tend to be well looked after — replacements are hard to get. But a British enthusiast named Adam Bennett did not forget about the expedition. After learning of the Land Rover's location, he convinced the owner to sell "Oxford" to him along with the 88" Land Rover, with help from journalist Peter Galilee. The owner on Saint Helena parted with both old Land Rovers in exchange for a newer 300Tdi Defender model.
"Oxford" returned to the U.K. and regained some of the parts "loaned" to the later Land Rover, as Bennett gave the wagon a sympathetic mechanical restoration to preserve the originality and the patina of the veteran 4×4. Most of the lettering from the historic London to Singapore overland expedition is still visible after all these years, despite the humid saltwater climates of Ascension Island and Saint Helena. Upon its return to the U.K. it also regained its original license plate registration of SNX 891.
But "Oxford" never reunited with the "Cambridge:" Its twin was lost in an expedition in the Middle East when it ran off the road.
"Oxford" continues to be used as intended, and was recently photographed by its owner Bennett during a winter outing. In May 2018 the veteran Land Rover appeared at the Land Rover Legends event in the U.K. following its mechanical restoration.
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