Description
East Kent Road Car Company Limited was officially formed on 11 August 1916. From 1928, the Southern Railway became a significant shareholder in the company. From 1929, an arrangement was made with the British Post Office where letter boxes would be installed on some vehicles. Moving into the 1930s saw the take overs of the tramways of Dover and Thanet, trams were quickly replaced with motor buses.
During the Second World War, East Kent vehicles were regular targets for enemy aircraft and the long range guns across The Channel on the French coast before the fall of France. To try to combat this, the cream-coloured parts of the buses were repainted grey to help make them less visible. The company experienced many losses during this time, especially at Dover where the garage suffered a direct hit in 1942, killing several staff.
In the late 1950s, East Kent launched its first open top bus service with some of its wartime Guys converted. Painted in the reverse cream and red livery, they operated out of Thanet garage. This little Anglia van was used in the late 1960’s advertising its services.
The last Anglia, the 105E, appeared in 1959 and when it ceased production in 1967 over 1,000,000 units had been produced. With a top speed of 73.8 mph it could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 26.9 seconds. Variants included an estate and a panel VAN
