Specially adapted for royal use, this Land Rover was part of a fleet that accompanied Queen Elizabeth II on a six-month Commonwealth tour soon after her 1953 coronation.

This vehicle was the very first bespoke royal Land Rover and is known as ‘State IV’. Using an 86-inch wheelbase model as its base, the body was custom designed with a rear platform to acknowledge gathered crowds. Like all of the royal ceremonial vehicles that followed, it is painted the royal colour ‘claret’.

During the Commonwealth tour, Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip covered 50,000 miles over a route from London to New Zealand and Australia, then to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Aden (Yemen) and Africa, returning to Europe through Gibraltar.

The varying road conditions and temperatures were a challenge and where it was not practical to travel by road, the Land Rovers were transported by special air freighters. The Australian army provided a ‘royal car company’ of seven officers and 104 other army personnel who were each given three months training for the assignment, including driving at ceremonial speeds. This vehicle was retired in 1974 and replaced by a Range Rover.