Number Plate Stories

His and hers plates – in other words number plates that either match or complement your partners - is something that Gill and Tony Burgess from Worthing achieved quite by accident.

Tony had recently bought the car of his dreams, a Grinnall Scorpion, which is a three-wheeled sports car powered by a 4-cylinder 1100cc BMW motorbike engine. “Scorpion’s are made individually by a small firm in Bewdley, Worcestershire,” said Gill, “I wanted to get Tony a personalised number plate for his birthday. I found C3 AMB to represent his initials. Two months later I was amazed to find C3 GMB for myself. Sadly my husband died several months later, but we had some very happy times motoring around together. We were very proud of our matching plates.”

Sometimes picking the right time to buy a personal plate can be all that is holding you back. It wasn’t until Margaret Gillies retired that she decided to buy herself a private number. She says she’d always fancied getting one, but was changing her car every three years, so didn’t think it was worth it. “I finally bought 5913 MG for myself, then decided to buy GIL 3603 for my husband’s birthday. George had wanted a classic Mercedes for ages and when he rolled home in one, I just knew he would appreciate having personal plates as the finishing touch.”

Choosing ‘his and hers’ numbers is something that some couples plan to look for from the start. Keith and Enid Hughes from North Wales worked in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates for nine years. “We thought it would be fitting to have the Sharjah Airport identification letters, SHJ on our car registrations in the UK. My number is SHJ 916 on a Mercedes C180 and SHJ 798 is Enid’s number, on a Citroen ZX. Most people won’t know what the significance is, but we wanted something subtle and these look great together.”

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