Got this old Pressed Number Plate...Spaced as GM 514 B Any ideas to its origin?

[ioweddie]

I bought this old plate at a car boot sale for £5...Just the plate no papers to put on my fence..I have lots of old signs on there and the plate looks good with them.
The plate is an old pressed aluminium one with white letters on a black background. The spacing is exactly as this GM 514 B..
Just wondered if anyone had a clue of its origin..Originally thought it was a 1964 from Reading, but the spacing makes me think it might be from overseas.
Just curious...Thanks Eddie

 

[markjay]

Can you post a photo?

 

[W1ghty]

 

[markjay]

There's no need to grandstand me...

 

[W1ghty]

There's no need to grandstand me...

I thought yours was overly polite

 

[ioweddie]

pic in original listing

 

[Teego]

It's foreign. Not a UK font.

 

[Ted]

Looks like an old BAOR number plate to me.

 

[Doodle]

Looks like an old BAOR number plate to me.

Agreed.

 

[ioweddie]

Looks like an old BAOR number plate to me.

Thanks could you expand the detail a bit

 

[markjay]

Google found this:

 

[markjay]

The BAOR sounds about right:

from My First Car in BAOR

circa 1959:

 

[markjay]

See also:

Britische Streitkräfte in Deutschland / British Forces in Germany 1945-2019

Please see below for the English text BAOR Kfz-Kennzeichen – Zunächst begann die britische Rheinarmee (BAOR), Soldatinnen, Soldaten und zugehörige Zivilisten, mit speziellen Militärkennzeichen für...

www.facebook.com

 

[Ted]

Thanks could you expand the detail a bit

As @markjay has said, BAOR was British Army Of the Rhine.
I remember seeing these late sixties early seventies, they were on squaddies cars that were serving in Germany - usually on a VW or Ford Taunus.
Don’t quote me but I think they were exclusive to personal vehicles for the guys serving.
My guess is that when they came back to the UK the cars were re-registered with a UK plate and that is why there may be some plates around.

Think they stopped this during the Troubles as it identified the driver as a British Serviceman.

 

[markjay]

As @markjay has said, BAOR was British Army Of the Rhine.
I remember seeing these late sixties early seventies, they were on squaddies cars that were serving in Germany - usually on a VW or Ford Taunus.
Don’t quote me but I think they were exclusive to personal vehicles for the guys serving.
My guess is that when they came back to the UK the cars were re-registered with a UK plate and that is why there may be some plates around.

Think they stopped this during the Troubles as it identified the driver as a British Serviceman.

Apparently, the BAOR got rid of these plates at some point in the eighties when the IRA realised that these plates identified military personnel and their families in Germany and started targetting the vehicles displaying them. BAOR personnel private vehicles' plates were replaced with standard British plates for RHD cars and standard German plates for LHD cars, to prevent them from being easily identifiable as belonging to serving BAOR personnel and their families. Only military vehicles kept the BAOR plates after that. This probably explains how these plates found their way into the hands of private collectors.

 

[StMarks]

I bought this old plate at a car boot sale for £5...Just the plate no papers to put on my fence..I have lots of old signs on there and the plate looks good with them.
The plate is an old pressed aluminium one with white letters on a black background. The spacing is exactly as this GM 514 B..
Just wondered if anyone had a clue of its origin..Originally thought it was a 1964 from Reading, but the spacing makes me think it might be from overseas.
Just curious...Thanks Eddie

For further confirmation of the above information, I have an original pressed aluminium plate that is "normal" rather than BAOR spec'.
I retrieved it from the garage of my late father which was being cleared when he was downsizing many years ago.
I asked him where it was from, and he said it had belonged to his father ( RAF pilot in WW1 then Air Vice Marshal WW2) and that he kept the personal plate* from the car he had when my Grandfather died back in 1960.




* DFC : Distinguished Flying Cross

 

[ALFAitalia]

Nice plate.....pity its not on anything now.....

 

[StMarks]

Nice plate.....pity its not on anything now.....

Oh yes it is !!!!

,,, it's on my workshop wall.


I did ask my dad if the registration plate number was on retention (as he said it belonged to my Grandfather). He said that he had no documentation relating to it, just the number plates, as his mother outlived his father and naturally would have kept them along with the rest of his effects.
By the time she died she had not only moved home numerous times but become very infirm and forgetful. There certainly was nothing relating to his father's vehicles amongst her remaining effects.
I have considered making enquiries, but I wouldn't really know how to go about it.

 

[Dippo]

GOV.UK - What do you need to do?

contact.dvla.gov.uk

 

[StMarks]

GOV.UK - What do you need to do?

contact.dvla.gov.uk

Do you think any of those would be a valid approach mate ?

I suppose I could give it a try, does seem rather a stretch though...