DIAMONDS FOREVER
“But dad, it’s been part of my life since I was five,” she pleaded. “How could we get married without it?” It was not exactly something borrowed, but it was certainly blue, which was the colour theme chosen for the wedding.
Dad is Graham Booth, one of the last traditional brush-and-stick signwriters, legendary restorer of heavy prime movers – and former multiple-tractor heavylift operations crew chief. The object his youngest daughter Leanne had her heart set on as the centrepiece for her wedding reception is EGG 160, Graham’s Pickfords-liveried 1942 Model 981 Diamond T ex-British Army tank transporter tractor.
The wedding was only days away. Graham’s signwriting business takes him all over the country. Being away from home so often had prevented him from fixing the Diamond T’s nearside front wing. But Leanne was determined. He could not let her down. He set to that evening, working into the small hours. There was only time for a cosmetic fix, but it did the trick. So, one delighted daughter.
After the wedding ceremony, Leanne and new husband Martin Peet set off to the reception in a blue Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud bodied Bentley S, the wedding barouche Leanne had dreamed off since she was a little girl. (And her dad always imagined she only dreamed about trucks).
Nobody loves Diamond T 980/981s more than Graham Booth. Over the years he’s restored around 20 of them. He has had ‘EGG’ for 30 years or
