British bodies
Lars, basically Dr Gregg or Bart V stated that the chassis was a Ford with British-built body. Your suggestion makes sense because these earliest CMPs were imported as either chassis-cabs or equipped with Canadian bodies. The former required specialist bodies such as gantries and specifically ambulances because at the time there was no Canadian capability to produce 'specilist bodies'.
The authority for this is the DND papers which will form the basis of my book. However the side effect of this is that apart from the Canadian High Commission having to purchase in Sterling British trucks such as Bedfords before Canadian orders came through the assembly process, and after the losses for instance of the 50 F15s in France, the HC also purchased bodies from coachbuilders in the UK. The monies received were then funnelled back through the Treasury to purchase essential foodstuffs and also warlike materials from North America.
The only direct evidence I have come across so far of any British coachbuilders contracting directly with the Canadian Military HQ is in the 2 (Overseas) Detachment War Diary for 1940 which states that amongst other companies overload production from the Southampton CMD was taken on by Duple Motors and Bodies Limited in The Hyde, Hendon, London which was literally just a short distance away from the General Motors Limited former assembly plant that was in 1940 partly occupied by Frigidaire Limited and partly by Vauxhall Motors Limited as an export then import boxing/unboxing facility. We know that Duples bodied CMPs to British order, and I suspect that that they bodied Canadian and then British order G/S CMPs, as I just cannot see that they did any assembly work. From memory the earliest Canadian CMP bodies were from people such as Brantford who produced the protoype F15 G/S body as well as bodies for the pilot Chevrolets, and Gotfredson who produced FAT bodies. However I am by no means an expert on Canadian bodies and defer to those experts who know what they are talking about!
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