The ‘Oxford & Cambridge’ Question

‘Cambridge and Oxford’ on the Stillwell Road, Burma.

A while back, Alex asked me a question on why these two Rovers were called Oxford & Cambridge. I was then scolded by another reader for not giving more information in that post on “The Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition”.
Well, I was traveling without the laptop, and uploading posts through the phone is simply a pain in the arse.

In 1955 six Oxford & Cambridge students set off overland from London for Singapore. It turned out that only one student, Nigel Newbery, was from Oxford, but the name of the expedition stuck and the two Land Rovers were then referred to as “Oxford” and “Cambridge”. In fact, they were painted Cambridge blue and the darker blue of Oxford.

The expedition left Hyde Park and crossed the English Channel to France. From there they traveled through Monaco, Germany, Austria, Jugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Singapore. The trek to Singapore took 6 months and 6 days, traversing 18,000 miles.