Wirral Lifeguard Defender 110
Yellow Land Rover Defender 110 station wagon of Wirral Council's beach lifeguards at West Kirby, fleet number 1984, with red WIRRAL and BEACH LIFEGUARD lettering, yellow steel wheels, an amber light bar and a VHF aerial, photographed with a rescue boat in July 2011.
History
Wirral Council ran a seasonal beach lifeguard service on the Dee estuary and North Wirral shore, based at West Kirby beside the Marine Lake, with lifeguards patrolling the sands and the fast-flooding channels around Hilbre. Their yellow Land Rovers towed the inflatable rescue boat, carried the VHF radio and patrolled the tideline; when the council ended the lifeguard service the vehicles passed to the Marine Lake wardens.
The July 2011 Flickr photograph shows the older of the two vehicles supplied with the queue row: a Defender 110 station wagon in yellow with yellow steel wheels, black wheel-arch trims and chequer-plate sill strips, the council's red WIRRAL sun logo on the front doors, fleet number 1984 on the front wings, BEACH LIFEGUARD on the rear quarters, an amber light bar on the roof front and a VHF whip aerial, hitched to a boat trailer. The registry model reproduces that vehicle; its plate is not legible in the photograph and is left blank. The second supplied photograph shows a later Puma-era Defender 110, DC58 YFF, with WIRRAL on the bonnet and a five-lamp beacon bar — a different vehicle, recorded here as a source but not modelled.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Defender 110 station wagon)
- Manufactured
- Pre-Puma Defender 110 station wagon (inferred from the bonnet and grille); photographed July 2011
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Wirral Council (lifeguard fit and livery)
- Engine type
- Land Rover Tdi/Td5 2.5 L turbo-diesel (inferred)
- Production run
- 1
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- retired
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 110″
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
- Wirral Beach Lifeguard Land Rover, West Kirby (Flickr, kevmccann) ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-12)
- Wirral Land Rover Defender DC58 YFF at West Kirby (Flickr, 145398744@N03) ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-12)
Catalogue references
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevmccann/5990988347/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevmccann/5990988347/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-12T06:03:03.547Z · status: researched