During the summer holidays in 1965, five intrepid boys from Abbeylands went on an expedition to North Africa, travelling in a Land Rover they covered 7,000 miles in just under seven weeks, visiting Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The boys left London at 3 a.m. on 26th July and arrived back on 8th September, ready for the start of the Michaelmas term on 17th September.
The expedition was led by Philip Venning (f 60-65), who also served a driver, treasurer and archaeologist. Guy Crouch (f 60-65) was mechanic, driver cook and geographer, Jack Steer (f 61-65) quartermaster, driver and geographer, Robin Bovey (f 61-66) medical officer, cook, assistant treasurer and entomologist, and Hugh Ellerton (f 61-66) photographer and entomologist.
The group undertook the journey in a 1965 long wheelbase Land Rover (registration number BUN 792C) with the School coat of arms proudly displayed on the wing. The Land Rover was modified to seat five ‘in reasonable comfort’, with the addition of heavy duty shock absorbers and rear springs, an extra 65 litre petrol tank, a large roof rack, interior racking, and a long range lamp mounted on the roof which proved invaluable for night driving over rough roads.
The group organised the entire expedition themselves. Accurate maps were eventually obtained from the Ministry of Defence, although only after an alarmed telephone call from Whitehall to the Sergeant-Major of the CCF asking why Sherborne School CCF were going to camp in Libya?! Funding was provided by a number of institutions and commercial concerns, including HRH The Duke of Edinburgh who personally selected the expedition for an award from The Royal Society of St George, the New Venture Award 1965 from the Sherborne School Governors, and the High Wycombe Foundry Co. Ltd.
Philip Venning described the purpose of the expedition as threefold: ‘firstly to collect lepidoptera for the British Museum, Natural History Department, and study one particular species for an Oxford research group who were sponsored under the Nuffield Foundation (this latter part was not in fact undertaken as none of the species were encountered); secondly, to study various aspects of meteorology and desert geomorphology; and thirdly, to make a survey of the remains and effects of the North African campaign of World War II’, in which the fathers of three of the group had fought during the Second World War. Philip admitted that as none of the group were qualified, except in the entomological field, that any work they could do would be far more useful to themselves as practical experience than as great contributions to modern science.
Leaving London on 26th July, the group travelled across Europe through Belgium, West Germany, Austria, and Yugoslavia to Greece where they boarded ss. Lydia (with the Land Rover lashed to the deck) bound for Alexandria. At Ras el Hilal, Cyrenaica, they stayed on an estate owned by Miss Olive Brittan where they enjoyed two Arab feasts and a visit from Moroccan royalty. They then drove to Tunis, stopping at Benghasi where the B.P. Exploration Co. (Libya) Ltd. flew them out to Concession 65, an oil camp in the Sahara, to see drilling in progress. The plan had then been to travel to an area near Teboursouk in Tunisia, but difficulties at Tripoli with Libyan immigration officials meant that this had to be cancelled. Instead they left Tunis on 4th September on ss. El Djezair and sailed to Marseilles ‘under indescribably squalid conditions’, and then drove up France and returned to England.
The Expedition Report published on their return included an Entomological Report made at Ras el Hilal, Cyrenaica, and Tripoli, Tripolitania, by H.B. Ellerton and R.B. Bovey; a Geographical Report made at Ras el Hilal, Cyrenaica, by G.B. Crouch and J.P. Steer; and an Archaeological Report by P.D.R. Venning of remains of the North African campaign. The Report also included an account of their visit to the BP Concession 65 and of Miss Olive Brittan’s bee industry at Ras el Hilal, where she was employed as an apiarist to produce honey for King Idris and his ministers.
In an informal report of the expedition published in The Shirburnian (Michaelmas 1965), Philip Venning concluded that it had been largely successful ‘in that we didn’t forget a single item of equipment, or have any foreseeable trouble.’
Rachel Hassall
School Archivist
Visit Sherborne School Archive News for more stories from the archives.
Posted 28 July 2025 by Sherborne School Archives