Ford Motor Company was, and is perhaps, the most international of any American automobile manufacturing firms.

Following WWII Ford’s British manufacturing arm began producing a line of utility trucks, which they referred to as the “Thames Trader”.

Models ranged in different sizes and served a variety of business purposes from delivering milk, to automotive parts, and rising in scale to become tow-trucks and small heavy-duty earth carriers.

The Thames Trader we have the pleasure of offering is a Model E-83-W; 5 CWT van, which is also known by US standards as a 1/2-ton carry load.

This right-hand-drive example is powered by a 1172-cc 10-hp side-valve Ford engine, with a three-speed floor-shift gearbox.

The gearing is quite low as expected, in order to carry heavy weight in the back.

What is unusual about this particular example is the side door-mounted spare tires.

Few of these examples survived, as they were worked hard and typically deteriorated and disposed of.

This van is rep...