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Frank Stapley and crew - what happened to them?


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#1 Ray Bell

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Posted 02 January 2013 - 11:04

An item from beneath somebody's linoleum has caught my eye...

There on the third page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph of March 13, 1939 we find a headline, "English Motorists' 2-Year World Tour."

The article reads:

LONDON, Sunday - Major Frank Stapley, an explorer, with his wife and two other Englishmen, will begin a goodwill tour of 15 countries on April 15.

they will travel through France, Switzerland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Afghanistan and India.

From India their two cars will be shipped to Perth (Western Australia) and from there driven to Brisbane, from where they will be shipped to San Francisco.

It is intended to film the journey, which will take two years, in natural colors (sic).


Does anyone know if the trip was completed, it would seem just possible despite the progress of the war as they would have been out of European reach before things got too serious there and into the USA before Japan joined in.

Was such a film ever made?

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#2 Tim Murray

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Posted 02 January 2013 - 12:19

Google throws up a similar story in the same day's Melbourne Argus:

http://trove.nla.gov...rticle/12106802

but I can't find any other mention of the proposed trip. I suspect it very likely came to nothing.

#3 Ray Bell

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Posted 02 January 2013 - 23:24

Frank won't have been pleased to have seen that...

The Argus did a much better job of editing and correcting the story!