This is an example of a Rolls Royce passenger car transformed into a “combat vehicle”. However, the “military value” of this vehicle is quite questionable.This 1914 Admiralty Turreted Pattern armoured car appeared in November 1914, Seventy-eight vehicles were delivered to the Royal Navy in 1915. It carried a turret with a 7.7mm Vickers-Maxim machine gun.After WWI a new design was passed to the Ministry of War, giving rise to the 1920 Pattern Mk.I armoured car. They served in the Royal Air Force under designation “RAF type N.A.”.Some units of the 1914 Admiralty Pattern armoured cars were updated to the 1920 Pattern Mk.I type. All of them served as “Empire Police” in the deserts of Persia and Iraq. This 1920 Pattern Mk.I armoured car belongs to the Bovington Tank Museum’s collection. In 1939, forty-two of them remained in service, to which they were added ten “Mk.1A” and twenty-four more 1924 Mk.I vehicles.In 1924, the 1924 Pattern Mk.I armoured car left the production line with with some improvements like a commander’s cupola on top of the turret or a new machine gun mounting. Some 1920 Pattern Mk.I were updated to the 1924 Pattern Mk.I model.
