World War I marked the violent explosion of the powder keg of Europe that had been piling up for 14 years. Over the next 4 years, 20 million young men would die in the battlefields of France while countless more would due in the years after due to disease and injuries, not to mention the brave women and civilians who also suffered and died over the course of the war. Naturally, the motor industry was not prioritized over the war years, but that didn’t mean manufacturers would sit there idly. Phompsonby, amongst others, all joining in for the war effort, creating engines, aircraft and vehicles for the army to use, be it from licenced government plans or their own designs. Phompsonby made several attempts to supply vehicles to the army alongside aircraft engines that they built for the war effort, notably several armoured car prototypes that were not given the green light. The most successful vehicle they provided was the humble ambulance.
The ambulance was a Phompsonby van that was modified for the army. Beefier suspension was fitted which gave it an increased ride height and allowed it to traverse the shell potted, mud ridden terrain of the Western Front, while specially designed off-road tyres were put on to give it some traction in the slick mud and rain of the trenches.
This example is one of the few surviving ambulances, now in the The Military Land and Air Museum. The ambulance has been painted in a matt army green with slit headlights to minimize their illumination to the enemy. The rear of the ambulance has a red cross on a while background, highlighting it as a non-combat vehicle and a part of the aid teams, who are protected under the Geneva Convention.
The ambulance uses the same engine as the Phompsonby police car, being the Phompson Emergency, a 1.5 litre inline 4 engine. The engine produced 80.5 HP at 6,200 RPM and a maximum of 93.8 Nm of torque at 5,700 RPM. The engine ran on regular leaded fuel, as per the time, with the usual single barrel, single carburate. The engine did 8.4 miles to the gallon. The ambulance itself could, on regular roads, achieve a top speed of 68.5 MPH with a 0-62 of 19.1 seconds, though on the war-torn Western Front, the many shell holes, exponential amount of mud and complete lack of firm ground meant none of that mattered and all that was needed was a good set of tyres, good suspension and a manual differential to allow it to pull itself over rough ground.
The ambulance model served the army and Red Cross well over the duration of the war, with thousands of them making the crossing over to France and helping to save countless servicemen’s lives over the course of the war. Some of the ambulances were lost over those 4 years, however, due to enemy fire or otherwise, but those that survived remained in Red Cross service until the early part of the 1920s. After that, the ambulances were mostly either sold or scrapped. Very few remain and most of these are not in running or restored condition, though this example does reside in a museum in restored and running order.