Prince Philip's Defender 130 Gun Bus
The Defender 130 gun bus built by Foley Specialist Vehicles in 2016 for shooting parties at Sandringham — a bronze green single cab with a tall, windowed box body — which Prince Philip then had redesigned, with his own input, into the open-backed hearse that carried his coffin at Windsor in April 2021.
History
Foley Specialist Vehicles of Essex built the Defender 130 in 2016 as a 'gun bus' for the Sandringham estate: a bronze green single-cab 130 carrying a tall box body with a side door and large rubber-edged windows so a shooting party could ride together. Prince Philip, a Land Rover enthusiast who had used the marque for decades, took a personal interest in the project and later asked for the vehicle to be reworked, to his own specification, into an open-backed hearse: the box body was removed and replaced by an open rear deck with rubber grips and stops for a coffin, and the whole vehicle was repainted Dark Bronze Green. Fox News reported on the vehicle after it carried the Duke of Edinburgh's coffin from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel on 17 April 2021, publishing the pre-conversion photograph used here.
The registry's model is the vehicle in its 2016 gun-bus form as photographed: Defender 130 single cab with the round-topped box body, side door with a small high window, three large windows each side, roof vents, rear step and green steel wheels. The hearse conversion is described but not modelled.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Defender 130)
- Manufactured
- Built 2016; converted to a hearse before 2021
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Foley Specialist Vehicles ↗gun-bus body, 2016; hearse conversion to Prince Philip's design
- Engine type
- Ford 2.2 L Duratorq TDCi turbo-diesel (Defender 130 of 2016; not stated in the source)
- Production run
- 1
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- preserved
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 130″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Land Rover 'gun bus' carried Prince Philip's casket ↗ — Fox News (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://www.foxnews.com/auto/land-rover-gun-bus-prince-philips-casket https://www.foxnews.com/auto/land-rover-gun-bus-prince-philips-casket ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T13:22:19.844Z · status: researched