Fordson Emergency Food van.
Very original surviving mobile canteen
Reproduced here thanks to Dana who runs a site showing the contents of the Vimy House collection in Canada (all original photos by J.M. Funenga). There is now a second page of wartime canteen van pics, which you can see here.
Side view showing the hatch fully open, ready to serve a nice cuppa, as it would have done during WW2. These vehicles were donated by Ford to the war effort. Looks like this one has had a little remedial weld to the front wing - these early Fordsons, with non-beaded wings, fracture quite easily, so later examples were fitted with more robust, beaded edge, front wings.
It's nice to see that this rare van has been left in its original state. So many older vehicles are over-restored, thus removing 80% of their originality, patina, and so on. Top marks for preserving this one in its original paintwork. Note the non flared rear wings, single headlamp (with blackout mask fitted) and other features such as the window winders in the door trimes (see interior pic below).
The JNO registration suggests that it started life, at least it started its road-registered life, somewhere in the Essex area c1941. This early van has a single starting handle hole in the front grille, perhaps when this one came out only RHD vans were being produced for the domestic market, so there was no need to cater for LHD vehicles, with their engines on the other side of the chassis? It'd be interesting to know the chassis number of this van.
This is how an original and well preserved interior of a working E83W should look. There appears to be an extra dial on the dashboard of this example, a clock perhaps? Not many Fordson 10cwt have passenger steps either - real luxury!
And finally a photo inside the rear working area, showing rudimentary cooking and boiling facilities. At least the driver doesn't have to get wet moving from the cab to the rear area! Photos of more military vehicles in the Vimy House collection can be found here on the rest of Dana's site.
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