MILITANT

We may have to name the third chap in our on-going AEC saga, “Mr Militant”, as when you own five of them, it does give you a bit of an edge on anyone else who could challenge for that title.

Simon Daymond of Yorkshire loves Militants, consequently three of his acquisitions reside with the Keighley Bus Museum which is where we first encountered them. One, SFF 142, is well-known, appearing at many rallies occasionally wearing its Army plates of 36 BM 01, but the other unrestored pair are less prolific. One, 205 XUE, carries a large Harvey Frost crane from the days it was used for recovery work by McLarens of Aberchirder (bizarrely, the town is also known as Foggie), near Turriff, in Aberdeenshire. It is still in the same state as when it was sold off at auction, retaining its faded British Army green paint, albeit now sprinkled with some rust staining, but Rob Smith’s logging tractor benefitted from the acquisition of its spare-wheel carrier… Anybody got a spare wheel carrier to replace it?

Another in Simon’s collection, OSJ 864, is in good condition too, looking almost as if it is still working for the Army, and ready to be hooked up to a 5.5in medium field gun. One of his Militants has the earliest known chassis number - 0016. And there are two more!

Having once worked in a car accessory shop in my youth, I know how difficult identifying the right part is, as I vaguely remember that there were 24 different exhaust types for one Vauxhall model almost down to the time of