The Morris Minor Travellers became available from November 1953 and were produced as the series II version until 1956 when the Morris Minor 1000 version appeared in both standard and the de Luxe level of trim. The Traveller followed the LCV into production, but afforded as much versatility and space as the van as well as having the luxury of being an estate car complete with a rear seat. The traveller consists of a specially constructed body, which incorporates the front of the body shell, floor and bulkhead from the 2-door saloon, with the rear frame being extended, onto which the ash timbered body is built. It carries some chrome quarter bumpers at the rear with a centrally fitted number plate and light unit. The folding rear seat provides seating for 2 passengers, it folds flat and flush with the rear floors, also fitted are double rear doors with an automatic click/locking device. A point to note these doors will fit straight onto a van and vice versa, now not a lot of people know that!

It was not until 1967/8 that these found their way into Military use with their national service lasting around 5-7 years, although there were odd Minors that were used by the military before this date. The exact number of the Military travellers used is unknown, the contracts put the figure at just over 2000, but certainly numerous registrations that were allocated were not used, so it is best to use the 2000 as a basic guide and work downwards! Added to this confusion are the various re-allocated military registrations between the branches of the armed forces all lead to confusing totals, so as to the exact number I do not know. Few of the 2000 odd are known to exist with around 40 or so known surviving examples. It is hoped as a result of this article to raise the profile of such vehicles and bring some more to light. I hope with the points that I will be describing and the photographs, it will enable you to spot these travellers wherever they might be!


A brief word on Military registrations, they are usually allocated from 00**01 to 99**99, but the full batches were often not completed, this was the case with Minor travellers. The Royal Navy travellers always carried RN, the RAF carried AM, (the AM was allocated to water tankers, cars and the like) and the Army suffix was F followed by another letter to indicate the year for example FH was for 1968/9. When the vehicles were decommissioned or sold out of service, they were then allocated a civilian registration in the year that this occurred, therefore if you have wondered why some travellers are seen with R, S & T registrations, then, you now know why! This itself was the easiest recognisable feature, but since some have been reallocated with age related plates, they manage to blend back as being a ‘normal’ traveller again, so you need look deeper, but always look carefully at travellers that carry ‘L’ registrations onwards, you may just get a surprise!


Another military feature of these travellers is the ID plate located under the bonnet on the bulkhead, right hand side as you look into the engine bay, this plate is around 5 x 7 inches, even if missing the 4 mounting holes are normally seen or if the vehicles has not been painted the outline of the plate is clearly visible. If you ever get to see this plate there are some details worth noting, the chassis number, military registration and the contract numbers are all displayed as well what type of vehicle it is. On occasions a smaller ID plate can be found located on the glove box lid. As the Royal Navy only acquired 50 or so it is not known if these had these plates mounted, as the 2 owners that I have spoken confirm that their vehicles did not have them fitted.

These vehicles were known as 4 x 2 utility by the Military and were ordered in batches under contracts, each batch given its own unique number, this contract number even appears on the Military ID plate! There were 3 different code numbers allocated to the Traveller under these contracts, these being 5659, 3659 & 0659 these equate to LHD, Tropical & RHD respectively. The only real differences in the tropical versions were improved ventilation/heating systems and usually had more opening windows! That was the case with most military ‘tropical’ versions, so I am not too sure whether the traveller heater/blowers were modified but there was certainly no more opening windows! If there were any LHD tropical versions they would have been coded as 8659, but there were not any as far as we know.

The traveller had a similar chassis numbering system to that of the Minor LCV, for example MAW 5(L) 127xxxxF equates to the following

• M = Morris
• A = Type of engine, A series engine on Minor
• W = Traveller
• 5 = Series V (on occasions L, may appear this purely indicates LHD)
• 127xxxx = gives the chassis number and they are followed by either F or M, F is Adderley Park and M is Cowley.

Most Military travellers were disposed of during the 1970s were via the Ruddington auctions located near to Nottingham. These were large sales were held over a three or four day period, and often occurred five or six times in a year. The sales also handled disposal of ex-DHSS disabled drivers cars as well as other various ex-Government vehicles, which would have included Minor LCVs. Of interest John Targett has recently informed me that Morris travellers OKL454M to 457M, all four were sold from MOD Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment that was based Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks, in Kent, these were sold at the Ruddington auction during November 1975.

In part 2 the recognisable features and liveries to help identify a military traveller will be looked in-depth, but just to get you started, an interesting possible use has recently surfaced.
Much like the GPO who issued instructions (known as POIs) to the various garages that maintained their fleets, the Military were the same, these being known as MOD instructions (MODIs). I have recently obtained a copy of one such document that shows how to convert a Morris Traveller for security screening, which basically means placing metal mesh protective screens over all the windows and doors of the vehicle. The document goes on in detail with all the dimensions and sizes of the parts required, it even covers the mesh used over the headlights. The ‘instructions’ allowed 24hours for the complete job, it is dated 20/5/1969, which surely indicates that the humble Minor Traveller saw active service in Northern Ireland, but as to what duties were involved I have no idea. Can anyone supply more details on this?

In part 3 & 4 we will look at the LHD travellers, part 5 some Military men with their Military Minors and in parts 6, 7 & 8 we look at the LCVs used by the various Government departments, such users being the Home Office and the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries. Many thanks are made to the following that have contributed to this series of articles, Alan Russell, Godfrey Crew, Gerry Cambridge, Pete Jarman, David & Lesley Price, Eddie Farrell, John Barrett, David Powell, Ken Painter, Robin Taylor and the Fleet Data Society.

If you know of any ex-Ministry/Military Minors or LCVs used by any other Government departments please contact me via Minor Monthly, if you require details of the Minor LCV Register they can be obtained by contacting me via e-mail RussLCV@ClubMorris.co.uk or visit the Minor LCV Register’s website on www.minorlcvreg.tk I have also compiled a Military Traveller & ex Government LCV website at www.militaryminors.tk
© Russell Harvey

Part II >>Part III >>Part IV >>Part V >>