Thornycroft J Type

The Thornycroft J Type was a three-ton, two-axle lorry built by the British commercial vehicle maker Thornycroft, and it became one of the workhorse trucks of the British military in the First World War. It was designed to meet the War Office specification of 1911 for a subsidy scheme truck, under which a civilian firm received a grant towards the price of a lorry that the army could requisition in wartime. Power came from a four-cylinder, 6,256 cc side-valve petrol engine rated at 45 brake horsepower, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox. After early purchases of several Thornycroft chassis, the War Office settled on the J Type in August 1914, and more than 5,000 were delivered to the British military, with some going to Imperial forces; it stayed in British Army service until 1930. A batch of 183 was fitted with the 13-pounder anti-aircraft gun as an early self-propelled air defence weapon, popular for its reliability but poor off the road. Surviving lorries are held by the Hampshire Cultural Trust, the Milestones Museum and the Imperial War Museum.