1915 Ambulance May Go Back On Road

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 7

1915 Ambulance May Go Back On Road

AUCKLAND, May 16. A dilapidated 1915 war-time ambulance which has been lying in a Kerikeri orchard for seven years has been brought to Auckland by a vintage car enthusiast, Mr B. W. Jackson, of Mount Wellington.

Mr Jackson believes that the ambulance, known as “Gutless Gerty,” is the only one of its kind in New Zealand.

He bought the ambulance which still bears a faded Red Cross sign, from Mr S. Booth, of Kerikeri, for £45. He intends to spend £lOOO restoring it. The ambulance, a RoverSunbeam, was used in France during the First World War. It was one of several brought to New Zealand after the war and arrived here in 1919. Many were used in country areas where there were no doctors.

A member of the Vintage and Veteran Car Club and the Museum of Transport and Technology, Mr Jackson said

that he hoped the ambulance would be exhbited at the museum eventually. Mr Booth bought the ambulance in 1925 and for many years used it as a caravan. Among the original fittings on the vehicle are a siren, a horn and three of the tyres.

The original canvas which covers most of the ambulance was still intact after being covered with metal by Mr Booth.

Mr Jackson, managingdirector of a caravan manufacturing firm, accompanied by his sales manager, Mr L. J. Elliot, spent hours in the orchard at Kerikeri picking up parts of the ambulance. It also took many hours to load the vehicle on to a trailer. Mr Jackson’s 1930 Packard, which he restored at a cost of £ll5O, towed “Gutless Gerty” to Auckland in eight hours. The Packard cost him £45 and is 19 feet long. Mr Jackson said it would take about three years to put the ambulance back on the road.