In 1919, the British Army found itself short of armoured cars. Few manufacturers wanted to do war work at the time, but the Austin Motor Company of Birmingham agreed to provide armoured bodies if the War Office could come up with suitable chassis.
In 1919 the British War Office decided to increase its stock of armoured cars, most of the wartime examples having been worn out. The British motor industry was too busy meeting a huge commercial demand so the Army decided to improvise. A stock of Peerless lorry chassis was releases from military reserve and the Austin Motor Company contracted to supply suitable armoured bodies.
The Peerless was an American make which had been used extensively by British forces during the First World War. It was slow, heavy, but extremely tough with solid tyres and chain drive to the rear wheels only. Austin used a double-turreted body design, originally created for the Russian Army although some had been used by the Tank Corps in France at the end of the war. However the Austin body was a good deal shorter than the Peerless chassis, resulting in a rather ungainly vehicle which could be difficult to manoeuvre in a restricted space. For this reason, the Peerless armoured cars were provided with a duplicate set of driving controls at the back.
In fact, when it entered service, the Peerless turned out to have a poor off-road performance. Some were used with the British forces in Ireland and a few served, subsequently, with the Free State Army. Others were seen in London at the time of the 1921 and 1926 General Strikes, escorting food convoys. When the Territorial Army was reconstructed after the war the Royal Tank Corps acquired eight yeomanry armoured car regiments. These had one or two armoured cars on permanent strength and borrowed others from reserve stocks for their annual camps, mostly being either Rolls-Royce or Peerless. The latter proved so tough that they would simply not wear out so some were still operational in 1939 when the next war began.
The Tank Museum’s Peerless Armoured Car
Our exhibit is believed to have ended its service life during the war, defending an airfield in Gloucestershire.
