Thursday, December 20, 2018

The Royal College of Science Motor Club was set up in 1955 to maintain "Jezebel", a 1916 Dennis fire engine, the mascot of the Royal College of Science, Imperial College, London


Well, that's nice, but maybe you're thinking what's the best historical point, of the 102 year old fire engine?

Jez was there when Zeppelin firebombs raids threatened London. Jezabel, known then simply as LP8389, was one of a batch of six fire engines supplied to the London Fire Brigade on 16 April 1916. Not many vehicles still running under their own power were on the job working emergency units in WW1.... despite the trivial point that the engine crankshaft was made in Germany


What a comical point to bring up the emotional low of a WW1 London bombing? Well, I have one of those too... the cross town rivalry of colleges resulted in this mascot also being stolen by the rival college students. (like the Georgia Tech Wreck story of yesterday)

In May 1957 the Queen Mother dropped by the college for a visit, prompting a fast paint job for superb display quality and the stunning good looks over took good car show etiquette resulting in the QM reaching out to touch the fresh red paint with her snow white gloves

Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip visited college in 1969 to open the administration block, and on seeing Jez remarked, “My mother warned me about that thing, she ruined a brand new coat on it.”

November 1973 re-christening dinner, with Lord Montague of Beaulieu and Stirling Moss as guests of honour. The sign writing and gold leafing, some of it still in evidence today, was completed with only three days to spare.

In early 1986 a complete repainting of the bodywork was undertaken, a job which eventually took four months longer than expected, but she was completed in time to go posing in front of the Royal wedding of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson in July.

Jez has made the London to Brighton run several times.


Her registration number is LP 8389 and she served in the London Fire Brigade, before being transferred to Joseph Crosfield, a soap factory in 1932. She was acquired by the students' union, the Royal College of Science Union in 1955 for official transport of the President.

Due to destruction of records of the LFB during World War Two, it was not until 2003 that it was established Jez, as she is affectionately known, served first at Vauxhall, and then at Rotherhithe in 1919.

Jezebel is still maintained by students of Imperial College London. She is lovingly looked after by a motley collection of current and past students to keep her in good mechanical condition, and to ensure that her 55 square feet of brasswork is kept highly polished.

Since the occasional engine breakdown happens, sometimes disastrously, as when a con rod escapes to freedom, enormous efforts have been required to keep the engine (and water pump) running.

As there are not many sumps lying around for a 1916 Dennis, it was feared that Jez would never run again. It was only by having expensive (£1700) patterns made up specially that a new sump and crankcase could be made.

 Having patterns made, new castings were made free of charge by apprentices at Alcan laboratories of Banbury, and after a lot of machining in the college department of Mechanical Engineering workshops, the engine was rebuilt and running in November 1979.

A new pump was fitted about this time, when a 1923 Dennis No. 2 was obtained from Merseyside Metropolitan Fire Brigade. For the first time in nearly forty years, Jez was able to pump, and quite creditably projected water half way across the Thames at Richmond.

Jez attends all sorts of rallies and shows throughout the year, (in 2017, went to both Brooklands, and Isle Of Wight Steam Show) as well as many pub-crawls and charity events. The Motor Club philosophy is that she is there to be run (she travels everywhere under her own power, never on a transporter) and her raison d'etre is to amuse and arouse both students and the general public.



https://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/rcsmotor/
https://wwwf.imperial.ac.uk/blog/mascots/2013/02/04/jezebel/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCS_Motor_Club

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