London ambulances through the ages
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HISTORIC vehicle rallies, through constant repetition, are threatening to become a bore even to enthusiasts. An exception was a recent procession of oldies preserved by the London Ambulance Service.
Two of them bore the livery of the Metropolitan Asylums Board — a name to strike fear into any uninformed heart, with visions of Bedlam and strait-jackets. One was a horse-drawn ambulance and the other a 1926 du Cros built by W. and G. du Cros, of Acton, London.
Another prized pre-war exhibit was a 1935 Talbot with a superb six-cylinder engine. This distinguished line unhappily ended when the ailing ClementTalbot, of North Kensington, London, succumbed to the Rootes Group.
I remember the Talbot 95 with particular affection because the owner of one kindly salvaged my car with a tow rope after a would-be thief had abandoned it axle-deep in a flower bed at London's Alexandra Palace at 1 o'clock in the morning.