David Fletcher profiles the Rolls-Royce Indian Pattern Armoured Car
Anumber of Rolls-Royce chassis were fitted with improvised bodies in India during World War One. Captain Arthur Clifton was so taken with them that he used them in preference to other makes. It was this combination of reliability and quality that attracted the Indian authorities to Rolls-Royce in the first place.
The War Office in London promised a substantial number of armoured cars to India, which would have been the Rolls-Royce turreted 1914 European Pattern types, supplied in groups of three. In the event, they were never sent because the War Office found it had too many other uses for them. Instead, six cars of the same type – possibly ex-East African cars – were shipped from Egypt in two lots of three.
The vehicles joined the First Armoured Motor Unit at Peshawar and were duly fitted with narrow steel disc wheels and Macintosh normal air pressure (NAP) tyres. They were later joined by eight cars
