Last month saw the 100th anniversary of car number plates being made compulsory in the UK.

Under the Motor Car Act of 1903, local authorities were responsible for issuing registrations and each was allocated a one or two-letter code. G, S and V were reserved for Scotland, with Ireland getting I and Z.

London was A, Lancashire was B and Hampshire, for example, was AA. Each alphabetical code was followed by a serial number of up to four digits. The first registration number issued by London was the simple A 1.

Other milestones in the 100 years, detailed by registration expert John Harrison in the Institute of Advanced Motorists' magazine Advanced Driving, were:

In 1963, year-letter suffixes were brought in, so that the format became ABC 123A, with the new-registration year starting in January

The start of the new plates was switched to August in 1967, with reflective plates becoming optional in January 1968 and compulsory for new vehicles from January 1972

In October 1974, all registration records were passed on to computer and held by the newly-created Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre at Swansea

With the letters I, O, Q, U and Z not being used, the suffix system ended with Y on July 31, 1983. After that, the year letter came at the beginning of the plate -- for example A123 ABC.