The Coleman Milne Cardinal is a hearse built by Coleman Milne, a British coachbuilder that converts production cars into funeral vehicles, stretched limousines and specialist vehicles. Like the company’s Minster, Dorchester and Grosvenor, it is based on the Ford Granada.
Coleman Milne Cardinal at a glance
| Coachbuilder | Coleman Milne, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Base vehicle | Ford Granada |
| Body type | Hearse |
| Granada-based range | Minster, Dorchester, Grosvenor |
| Company founded | 1953, by John Coleman and Roderick Milne |
| First conversions | stretched Ford Zephyr |
| Parent company from 1992 | Woodall Nicholson Limited |
| Administration | 20 November 2023 |
| New owner from 2024 | Guido Dumarey |
| Main customers | funeral directors, local authorities, government departments, police, royal families |
There is no separate Wikipedia article on the Cardinal; this page is based on the English Wikipedia article on Coleman Milne, which lists the Ford Cardinal hearse among the company’s vehicles and describes the Granada-based range. based on one source.
History of the Coleman Milne Cardinal
Coleman Milne was founded in 1953 by John Coleman and Roderick Milne. The two men began with vehicle body repairs and horse boxes, then used those skills to move into limousines and funeral hearses, which became the core of the business. Their customers came to include corporations, financial institutions, nationalised industries, local authorities, government departments and police constabularies, as well as limousine hire companies and funeral directors; vehicles have also been supplied to British and overseas royal families.
The company first stretched the Ford Zephyr and later moved to the Ford Granada, which became the basis of a whole family of conversions. On the Granada Coleman Milne built the Minster, the Dorchester and the Grosvenor, and the Cardinal hearse belongs to the same line of Granada-based vehicles. In the autumn of 1982 the Dorchester was also offered as an estate with elongated rear doors under the name Windsor, which shows how far the coachbuilder was prepared to rework the standard body.
In 1992 a management buy-out turned Coleman Milne into a trading division of the holding company Woodall Nicholson Limited. The company continued to build hearses and limousines, and its later range included Mercedes and Rolls-Royce based vehicles, a Mondeo estate removal vehicle and even a Mustang Mach-E hearse and limousine. On 20 November 2023 the businesses entered administration; in 2024 the Belgian industrial entrepreneur Guido Dumarey acquired Coleman Milne together with VCS Police, Mellor Bus, Treka Bus, Promech and JM Engineering, and the operations were consolidated under a new holding company, Woodall Nicholson.
Design and features
- Ford Granada base: a widely available British saloon, which made servicing and parts straightforward for funeral directors.
- Coachbuilt body: the Granada shell was reworked into a hearse rather than simply trimmed, as with the company’s limousines.
- Part of a Granada family: the Cardinal sat alongside the Minster, Dorchester and Grosvenor conversions.
- Specialist maker: built by a firm that had been making funeral vehicles since the 1950s.
Coleman Milne Cardinal versions
- Cardinal hearse: the Granada-based hearse described here.
- Minster: another Granada-based Coleman Milne conversion.
- Dorchester limousine: the stretched Granada saloon.
- Windsor: the Dorchester estate with elongated rear doors, offered from the autumn of 1982.
- Grosvenor: the Granada-based limousine in the same range.
The Cardinal belongs to the same Granada family as the Coleman Milne Grosvenor limousine. More conversions are collected in the Coleman Milne collection.
Sources
- Coleman Milne, English Wikipedia: company history, Granada range, customers, administration and 2024 sale
