Dennis A Type

The Dennis A Type, often called the Dennis War Office Subsidy Type, was a British lorry built by Dennis Brothers of Guildford in the 1910s. It was designed to meet the War Office subsidy scheme, under which a buyer owned a lorry that the army could take over in wartime. It was a cab-behind-engine, rear-wheel-drive truck with a payload of three and a half to four long tons, a four-speed gearbox, steel wheels with solid rubber tyres and a worm-drive rear axle that was considered particularly advanced for the period. The first engine, a 30 bhp Aster petrol unit, proved underpowered, so a four-cylinder White and Poppe engine replaced it and the type was certified in early 1914. Over 7,000 were delivered by the end of the First World War, and a number also went to the American Expeditionary Forces in France.