About UK Emergency Vehicles
UK Emergency Vehicles is a trusted and widely referenced platform, continuing its mission to inform, document, and celebrate the vital vehicles that serve and protect the UK every day.
UK Emergency Vehicles was established in February 1999 by Richard Thompson, drawing inspiration from two key sources: the authoritative reference book Emergency Service Vehicles of the UK by Clive Sturman (Ian Allan Publishing, 1980) and James “Jimbo” Farley’s pioneering website on Kent Police vehicles. These influences helped shape a vision to document and showcase the evolving fleet of emergency service vehicles across the United Kingdom.
A Community of Contributors
The success and scope of UK Emergency Vehicles would not be possible without the generous cooperation of emergency service organisations, vehicle manufacturers, and a dedicated community of photographers. We extend our sincere thanks to all those who have granted us permission to photograph their vehicles and to the individuals who continue to submit high-quality images for inclusion on the site.
While the majority of photography is produced by our in-house team, we are grateful for the many submissions from the public, which have significantly enriched the variety and historical depth of our collection. To maintain consistency and respect the wishes of contributors, we do not individually credit donated images, as many prefer to remain anonymous. Submission of images implies that the sender has secured appropriate permissions and grants us unrestricted rights to display and promote the content.
If you believe that any image featured on our website has been used without proper authorisation, please contact us immediately. We are committed to resolving any concerns quickly and respectfully.
Our Digital Evolution
Over the years, UK Emergency Vehicles has grown and evolved to reflect the dynamic nature of the emergency services themselves. From modest beginnings to a comprehensive online archive, our website continues to expand both in scale and functionality. Below are just a few snapshots of our digital journey:
- February 1999 – website first launched as ukemergency.8m.com
- 2003 – key re-design to move to thumbnail based pages and website re-launched as ukemergency.f9.co.uk using Force9’s servers in the UK
- 2005 – adopted the permanent home of ukemergency.co.uk supported by a business-class hosting infrastructure to accommodate growing demand
- May 2007 – launched our most popular page “The Liver Run” on the 20th anniversary of the run
- February 2009 – marked our 10-year anniversary with a month-long celebration featuring competitions and giveaways, culminating in a proud milestone of one million homepage visits by August 2010.
- 2009 – the complementary domain ukemergency.com was acquired, ensuring seamless redirection to the primary site
- 2010 – moved from static content pages to database-style using Joomla
- 2014 – migrated to the world-leading WordPress platform
- 2019 – our 20th anniversary saw a series of retro images published charting the previous 20 years
- 2020 – entered our fourth decade online, covering the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.
- 2024 – 25 years online and still growing, with 25,000 images hosted