SOME of you may never have come across the phrase ‘busman’s holiday’ before. It’s something I heard a lot when I was a kid, although apparently it dates back to 1893. Just to be clear, that’s almost 70 years before I was on the scene… But if it’s new to you, let me explain: a busman’s holiday means going on holiday to do something that is basically similar to your day job – you’re a bus driver and off you go on your holiday, by bus.
And that’s what Dunsfold Collection trustees and advisors Philip Bashall, Richard Grafton and I are doing. One way or another, we spend an inordinate amount of our time on Dunsfold Collection business and other Land Rover stuff, and here we are holding a half-day Collection planning meeting at the Land Rover Experience Centre London, which is co-owned by, you guessed it, Dunsfold Collection trustee and lifelong Land Rover enthusiast, Richard Beddall.
Richard started trialling and racing with the All-Wheel Drive Club as far back as 1970, and in 1979 he was approached by the boss of Mercedes-Benz UK who asked him if he could put a team together to teach the Mercedes main dealer salesmen (they were always men in those days) how to drive off-road. It turned out that Mercedes was about to launch the G-Wagen, and Richard and his team drove around the UK demonstrating the
