Court Treatt expedition

The Court Treatt expedition was the first to drive a motor vehicle from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt. The party of six people set off in two Crossley light trucks on 13th September 1924 and reached Cairo on 24th January 1926 sixteen months later, after covering 12,732 miles.

The expedition was the brainchild of major Chaplin Court Treatt known as C.T. He was born in Kensington, London on 3 September 1888 and grew up in Elstead Mill, Elstead, Surrey and went to Westminster School. On the outbreak of World War I he joined the infantry and went to France but in 1915 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps flying as an observer until he was injured in a crash in 1916 in which the pilot was killed. After a period of recuperation he was sent to Egypt where he had a staff posting until the 1918 armistice.

His first peacetime job, though still as an RAF officer, was with a survey team in Africa planning and mapping for the opening of an air route from Europe to South Africa . C.T. was in charge of no 3 party responsible for the Abercorn (now Mbala, Zambia) to Cape Town section, around 2000 miles. This work was finished in 1922 but rather than return to England he stayed in South Africa where he met Srtella and they married in 1923.

He undertook several more expeditions in Africa before moving to the United States. He died on the 11 July 1954 in Los Angeles.

Stella was born in Blaubank, South Africa in about 1895, and had at least one sister, Grace and brother Errol. Her grandfather had been an ivory hunter and her father had accompanied him on expeditions.

She was a small women, below 5 feet 2 inches tall which is specially notable when she is seen photographed alongside C.T. who was well over six feet.

After Cape to Cairo they went on further expeditions including one to Sudan which resulted in the filming of "Stampede" in 1929 and "Stark Nature" in 1930.

Errol Hinds was Stella's youngest brother born in about 1906. He accompanied the Court Treatts on further expeditions including ones to the Sudan where he was the film photographer. He later worked as photographer on several feature films including "The Clairvoyant" (1935) and "Rangle River" (1937). He made further films as both photographer and director until at least 1959 when he directed "The Wilds are Free" for the South African Government.

The idea of making a film record of the journey seems to have been the idea of Canadian photographer T.A. Glover who contacted C.T. with the idea. He had previously been on, and filmed, an expedition with Captain Angus Buchanan crossing the Sahara from Lagos to Algiers.

He went on to make more films, mainly documentaries and travelogues, but his credits also include the 1936 Paul Robeson film“Song of Freedom”.

Also from Canada, F. C. Law was a special correspondent for the Daily Express and wrote regular despatches to the newspaper throughout the expedition.

Julius was the son of a Nyasaland (now Malawi) native chief who spoke thirty-two native dialects in addition to English and had been C.T.'s "servant" in South Africa.

Major Court Treatt had had experience of Crossley vehicles during World War I when they were issued to all squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps. He also used one during his survey work for the air route and was pleased by how they coped with rough ground.

For the expedition they used two BGT1 type light trucks. These were originally designed to meet a War Office specification but were also sold to non-government customers. Fitted with a four cylinder 5,266 cc petrol engine they were rated as having a 30 cwt payload. The expedition vehicles were modified in having twin rear wheels and a special body with a roof that could be detached and converted into a raft. This latter device was never actually used as they were abandoned not long into the journey to save weight.

The two Crossley BGT1 light trucks photographed when new in the factory yard in Manchester.

Crossley BGT1 special roof sections

A demonstration of how the roof sections could be joined to make a boat.