The last of the breed: The Morris Commercial CS11/30 and SC11/30F ambulances

Many so-called “last-known examples” of military vehicles are held in museums around the world. However, now and again such rarities do come into private ownership. One such survivor is a Morris Commercial CS11/30 owned by Mary Roberts, a very active lady with a passion for military vehicles. Her truck is not only a rarity, it is, in fact, the last known example of its type.

Roberts delights in riding wartime motorcycles as well as driving her CS11/30 at shows, while wearing the uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, ATS, which was the female branch of the British Army during WWII.

MV enthusiasts often mistake her vehicle for an Austin K2Y, which is an altogether different vehicle. However, she does understand how the mistake can be made because the CS11/30 was fitted with the Mann Egerton box body, the same as fitted to the K2Y, and it also has the same distinctive “bulge” on the right hand side behind the driver’s cab where the spare wheel was kept.

So, what is the story behind Roberts coming to own the last example of this rare vehicle?

To answer that we first have to look at the origins of the company that produced the design. It was in February 1924 that Morris Commercial Cars Limited came into being. William Morris acquired the factory site in Foundry Lane, Soho in Birmingham and began producing 1- ton trucks for the commercial market. By 1932, the company had moved to larger premises in Adderley Park, where it began turning out some 15 different models ranging from 10cwt (1/4-ton) to 50cwt (2.5-long ton) trucks fitted with engines of the company’s own design.

When Britain went to war in September 1939 the company diversified into producing military trucks of its own design, such as the Morris C8 artillery tractor and the CS8 truck, turning out some 10,000 and 21,319 machines, respectively. Another of the company’s designs was the CS11/30, which was designated by theArmy as being a “heavy ambulance”, placing it in the same category as the Austin K2Y ambulance. The CS11/30 was produced in two versions. The other being the CS11/30F, between 1935 and 1939, based on the 30cwt civilian chassis which were “produced in considerable numbers”. Perhaps only 500 were fitted out as ambulances compared to the more than 13,000 K2Y ambulances. Other chassis were used as fuel tankers, fire tenders and cargo trucks.

There was very little difference between the CS11/30 and CS11/30F versions, both having the same overall dimensions and load-carrying capacity, the same number of gears and both were 4x2. In each case the letter “C” denoted the Morris Commercial company’s code for the army usage. The letter ‘S’ denoted six cylinders and the figure 11 gave the wheelbase length in feet, even though it was slightly longer, and the figure 30 was the cwt load-carrying capacity (1.5 long tons). Lastly, the letter “F” is believed to have stood for either “fixed” or “fitted” driver’s cab, as opposed to a canvas-rigged cab.

When Britain went to war it deployed the British Expeditionary Force, BEF, to France. By the end of September it had sent 152,000 men, along with all their weapons, equipment and more than 21,000 vehicles of all types. By the end of April 1940, there were 394,000 troops in the BEF and the vehicle and artillery compliment had also expanded.

On May 10 the Germans launched their attack which the Allies were unable to stem. The campaign would end with evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk. Left behind were a sea of heavy equipment and vehicles, many of which the Germans seized and pressed into service. Many of these vehicles were used in other theaters of war and there are photographs showing CS11/30 ambulances being used in North Africa and on the Eastern Front.

Roberts came by her CS11/30F in 2021, having spotted it for sale while looking for something completely different. Since then she has put together a timeline of its post-war history. Research shows it was part of the Government Contract V3475, which dates it to Aug. 22, 1939. Its exact service history is still unknown. In 1947, the vehicle was given its civilian registration number LNW 745, which it still bears today.

Its first role in civilian service was by a mobile knife grinder in and around the area of Leeds until sometime in the early 1970s. For a while it was used as a mobile shop, in a new livery of black and blue, before being placed on display in a motor museum. However, that did not last long. The vehicle was too big to go through the access doorway and was put up for sale again.

It was a case of third time lucky when it was acquired by Derek Watts, a military vehicle enthusiast, who decided to restore CS11/30F. He knew the whereabouts of the remains of another Morris CS11/30 ambulance lying forlorn in a scrap yard. He secured the remains of that vehicle and scoured the surrounding ground searching for fittings and fixtures such as screws, nuts and bolts and brackets to use on project. Having picked up as many parts as he could find, Watts then set about restoring the correct six-cylinder engine. He also managed to fit the correct supports for the stretchers.

A fellow vehicle enthusiast, Bernard Venners, then took on the project to continue the restoration. Unfortunately, ill health brought the work to a halt and Venners was forced to sell the vehicle. Another enthusiast, Peter Gaine, stepped in to take on the project and see it through to completion. Then, in 2021, Roberts purchased it. Since then she has driven it at various shows, including this year’s Wartime in the Vale, in Evesham, Worcestershire, where she gave a great mobility display. She has discovered that her pride and joy is something of a celebrity, having starred in a couple of episodes of the 2019 BBC television mini-series “World on Fire”.

It is really a remarkable story of survival and an example of how multiple enthusiasts have each added their restoration skills to the preservation of this vehicle. If it were not for them, the Morris would have been lost forever.

Roberts has now taken up that mantle and takes great care of her unique charge, which she calls “Amber”. She has created a Facebook page under the name “Amber the Ambulance”.