[King George V at Vimy Ridge with the Vauxhall D-type staff car that got him there. Photo courtesy of Vauxhall.]

The well-known Luton firm of Vauxhall Motors Ltd is described in an article of no little interest which appears in 'The Autocar' as one of the very few firms of motor car manufacturers which, while occupied solely upon war work, is engaged entirely upon the manufacture of the same type of cars as it was making when war broke out.

To all intents and purposes, says the writer, the Vauxhall concern has become a firm of one model specialists, and at the present time with only a single customer - the British Government.

The one model is a 25 hp car - the 95 x 140mm four-cylinder Vauxhall. It is true that at the time war broke out this was not the only model made by the Company, but the six-cylinder was larger than the Government required, and the other model, the 20 hp, was smaller than required and, although the Government had some of each type, we believe the final choice has fallen upon the 25 hp machine, so the whole energies of the Luton factory are devoted to turning out as many as possible of this model, which gives an exceptionally fine combination of power for weight and marked reliability. These Government cars are all precisely alike, have five-seated open bodies, driving screen and Cape cart-hood, while all have been painted in a green shade of khaki.

At the beginning of the war the Vauxhall Co for some time was able to make limited deliveries to private buyers, but for a long time past anything of this sort has been absolutely out of the question. Naturally it very much regrets being unable to meet the demands of its home and overseas customers, but, of course, the Government demands are paramount, and every available ounce must be put into executing them.

So much for the Vauxhall factory proper. Hard by, however, a new branch enterprise has grown with remarkable rapidity, in the fuse factory. This factory, by the way, will be one of the enterprises which, as the Minister of War himself recognised in one of his public utterances not long since, will bring him credit which he did not deserve. In other words, the Vauxhall fuse shop was started long before the co-ordination of our industries was attempted, and much before the Ministry of Munitions had been established.

The factory was commenced in December [1914] and entirely as a private enterprise. That is to say, no Government assistance was sought, other than an application for for the War Office orders, which were given. For over a month now fuses have been delivered to the War Office and Admiralty, and although the output has not yet reached its full extent it is going up steadily

This is no mean achievement, as the difficulties faced have been very great. First of all there were 38 wet days of the first 42 while the shop was being built, then machinery and plant promised for the end of January were not delivered until the end of April.

Of course, there were the usual troubles about skilled labour, and on top of this there has been the training of the hundreds of girls who are deftly turning out work with repetition machinery, and who carry out their duties as though they had never done anything else but manufacturing fuses.

We have watched these young girls at work, and we must say they put into it vitality, interest and skill which are a credit to their sex. Many of them are scarcely beyond the 'flapper' stage, but they work with a will, and in their neat blue overalls and blue caps they seem to have the wonderful feminine knack of keeping themselves clean and tidy on work over which men more often than not grease themselves almost out of all recognition.

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, August 30th, 1915]

[The colour picture (above, right) shows the restored Vauxhall D-type staff car now at the Vauxhall Heritage Centre in Luton.]