Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition

The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition was a 1955-6 journey undertaken by six Oxford & Cambridge university students in two Land Rover Series I Station Wagons from London to Singapore.

The Expedition was inspired by the earlier 1954 Oxford and Cambridge Trans-Africa Expedition, which was developed and planned by Adrian Cowell.

The University expedition was primarily sponsored by Land Rover, who provided the vehicles, but was also sponsored by a total of more than 80 other third parties through both loaned and donated equipment and supplies, ranging from whiskey to collapsible buckets, as well as monetary donations. The expedition was both filmed and documented, and the footage broadcast in the mid-50s on the BBC, which gave it the film in the first place at the behest of David Attenborough.

A book recounting the expedition, entitled First Overland, was written by Tim Slessor two years after the historic journey, and the expedition has been frequently referred to as the First Overland ever since. The expedition, its account, and the accompanying film footage are historically significant, as they not only recount the first such journey of this type by vehicle, but also provide the last recorded vehicular journey along the Ledo Road from India into Burma, as shortly afterwards the border between the two countries was closed.

All of the expedition members were drawn from either Oxford University or Cambridge University, and all had just finished their degrees when they set out on the expedition, with the exception of Nigel Newbery, who had one year left, and who, incidentally was the only Oxford student. The expedition members and their roles on the expedition were as follows:

The two Land Rover Series I Station Wagons, one painted in Cambridge Blue, the other in the darker shade of Oxford, were given to the expedition by Land Rover, and were straight off the production line. From Land Rover's point of view the expedition was both an extensive road-test and a great publicity opportunity for the vehicle before its 1956 commercial release. The new station wagons were very different from the previous 1949 wooden-framed Tickford model, being built with simple aluminium panels and bolt-together construction instead of the complex wooden structure of the older model.

...
Wikipedia