ROADS AND ROAD TRANSPORT HISTORY CONFERENCE OCCASIONAL PAPER January 1997 Price: £3.00 (inc p&p) Issue Number 1 Aspects of Wartime Transport in Britain SOCIETY OFFICERS President: Professor Theo Barker London School of Economics About this Publication Chairman: Prof. John Hibbs OBE University of Central England The R&RTHC is a society founded in 1992, and currently Perry Barr made up often Corporate Members and many more individual Birmingham B42 2SU Associate Members who arc concerned to foster research into the history of all forms of road transport in Great Britain and beyond. Secretary: Gordon Knowles The Corporate members arc the Kithcad Trust, London Trans­ 7 Squirrels Green Great Bookham port Museum, Maidstone & East Kent Bus Club, Museum of Surrey KT23 3LE British Road Transport, National Motor Museum, The Omnibus Society, The PSV Circle, Railway & Canal Historical Society, Treasurer: Roger Atkinson OBE Tramway Museum Society and Transport Ticket Society. 45 Dee Banks Chester CII3 5UU The Conference circulates a Newsletter three times a year, which reports Conference business and contains articles on road Research Coordinator: Ian Yearsley transport history, with a regular feature of articles on contempo­ 97 Putney Bridge Road rary issues which arc the makings of tomorrow’s history. London SW15 2PA The Occasional Papers arc a spin-off from the Newsletter, Newsletter Editor: Ron Phillips and will carry items deemed ofsuffieient interest to be made avail­ 16 Victoria Avenue able to a wider public, and whose topics have not previously been Grappcnhall widely written about. Warrington WA4 2PD In this edition... Published in January 1997 by ...we bring to light a report by a well known figure in the the Roads and Road Transport British bus industry on the special transport facilities provided at History Conference. Portsmouth Dockyard during World War II, with an introduction Correspondence regarding this to the author's previous career, and several appendices on im­ publication is to be sent to the pressed vehicles. Newsletter Editor at the adress Secondly, there is a look at the pattern of vehicle availabil­ shown above. Price to Members ity during the period 1939-1945, when vehicle manufacturers were is £2.50, to non Members £3.00, under governmental control, and many ceased to manufacture their including p&p. Copies available usual product and produced weapons or specialised military equip­ from the Treasurer, R.Atkinson. ment. W.T. UNDERWOOD ROADS & ROAD TRANSPORT The author of our first document had spent HISTORY CONFERENCE many years of his civilian career in bus operation, and his early years in particular fitted him well for OCCASIONAL PAPER his wartime role. He was an example of the "hands- Number One on" busman , who unlike the "management trainee" of present times, performed and understood most of THE PORTSMOUTH MEMORANDUM the different tasks involved in runninng buses him­ Some time ago our Chairman suggested that self. the R&RTHC might publish Ocassional Papers on John Dunabin has provided an introduction to subjects that would require too much space in the the early days of W.T.Undcrwood on the next page. thrice yearly soeicty Newsletter, but which were too specialised to appeal to other (commercial) publica­ WARTIME VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS tions concerned with road transport history. The second item is concerned with the types At about the same time, John Dunabin, an and numbers of new vehicles entering civilian service Associate Member, revealed that he had in his during World War Two. The chosen example is of the posession a "document in need of a publisher", this County Borough of Birkenhead, a typical medium being the report which now constitutes our first item sized industrial town. In order to throw extra light on in this first Occasional Paper. the subject, some references arc made to a rural area The original (carbon) copy was not suitable and a residential town, also in north-west Britain. lor reproduction by photographic means, and so we Some interesting facts emerge, one in particular shows have presented it in facsimile form, so as to rcsscmblc that mechanisation of fanning and cargo handling was as closely as possible the arrangement of the original greatly accelerated by the war. Another fact is that foolscap si/e, office-typed document. It was felt that the supply of new vehicles varied as the War evolved. this form of reproduction best represents the docu­ At the start, there was heavy regulation from the ment as conceived by, and approved by, the writer. Government, production of vehicles was halted or fro­ Those who seek after close detail will not find zen, and many manufacturers turned over to building it here in what is essentially a review of a five year weaponry, reparations were put in place to meet an period of intense activity, but it docs act as a signpost invasion. Later, certain makers were allowed to build to the sort of behind the walls activity which took a limited range of utility vehicles, and a number of place during the Second World War. It illustrates requisitioned vehicles were returned to civilian use.In military activity taking place in a civilian environ­ the final phase, when victory sccmd a Iiklihood, there ment, and not, thankfully, in a theatre of war, although was a relaxation of controls, although transport op­ some of what had to be done look into account the erators still required a licence to acquire new stock possibility of the invasion of Great Britain. until the December 1945. By chance, a second more detailed but very much shorter report came to light (see page 16) which THE SOURCE DOCUMENTS (2) gives a "snapshot" view of activity at another depot The second item is compiled from record cards providing transport for the armed services, in this case, (RF16) held by the authorities quoted (Birkenhead, specifically engaged in troop transport. Both reports Blackpool and Denbighshire) and acquired by the PS V speak of buses requisitioned by the Government. As Circle in 1977, when local authorities were no longer yet there has been no study made of the diverse uses required to retain vehicle records, following the full to which these buses were put, and as to exactly how commissioning of the DVLO at Swansea. There has many were lost, how many were returned, and how been a slight enhancement of the information shown many passed to new owners as "lost orphans". on the record cards from other sources (vehicle manu­ facturers' records, fleet records etc.) THE SOURCE DOCUMENTS (1) The PSV Circle took up the offer of the cards at the time in order to obtain information relating to The first item on Portsmouth Royal Naval buses and coaches, but they do offer a wealth of other Dockyard is from papers relating to W. T. Underwood information. The Kithead Trust is in poscssion of in the poscssion of The Omnibus Society. The second many of the cards, but the collection is by no means item on Miltary Buses in 1941 came from the PSV complete as many local authorities destroyed them. Circle, and originated with a member of H.M.Forces Some local record offices still hold registers of thccarly who happened to make a list of what he saw at the vehicles in their area. time "somewhere in the south of England". 2 Part I Memorandum of Motor Transport, H.M.Dockyard, Portsmouth 1939-1946 The Author, W.T.Underwood further visit to Lowestoft at the beginning of Novcm- William Thomas Underwood was born early ber, he returned once more with the first three buses, in 1888. He started work with United Automobile Dodson bodied saloons registered WR 5138/4/5, and Services in October 1914, as a driver at Bishop Auck- began the Worksop - Whitwcll - Clownc service from land. His wage was 40/- per week, which included a 12th Novcmbcr.Thc next day he noted "heavy traffic bonus of 7/6d that was subject to deduction in whole between Whitwcll - Worksop - running special cars", or in part in the event of misbehaviour, carelessness The Company proper was incorporated on 23rd or neglect. Before joining United he had been eight November 1920 (having commenced as an offshoot and a half years with the Great Grimsby Street Tram- of United), with two shareholders, viz W.T.Undcrwood ways Company, as a driver and fitter, and prior to and Arthur Harridge (Company Secretary), who each that he had spent two and a half years at Melton held one share. W.T.Undcrwood continued to serve Mowbray, "learning the trade". With United, he pro- the company which could be described as "Central gressed to bccopmc depot foreman at Durham, where Division" of United until 1927, by which time he was in 1917 he was earning 50/- a week. He would then "Resident Director and Manager". He left after what appear to have doinc some war service, possibly in a he called "an industrial upheaval", and the company motor vehicle factory, but was back with United by was later re-named East Midland Motor Services. October 1919, when he was at the Universal Garage, Between 1928-30, and under the title of Great Yarmouth. By 1920 he appears to have been at Underwood Express Services, he ran a service from Lowestoft, possibly in the Sales Department, as his Sheffield to London and Manchester. This enterprise note books record details of vehicles which he had was sold to the LMS and LNE Railways in 1930, inspected wyhen they had been offered as trade-ins. and Underwood then moved to the south coast, and At the beginning of July 1920 he spent about under the same title, commenced running an express two weeks in the area bounded by Doncaster - service from Southsca and Portsmouth to London.