Hello Francis Arnold

Francis Arnold The past comes alive when we start discovering what it was like to live in Britain in the past.

We are going to use documents in the Nick Baldwin Collection to help us travel back in time to the 1930s and find out what driving a London bus was like.

The activities can be used for individual research, as pairs or as small groups.

Have a closer look at the bus driving licence of Mr Francis Arnold. A licence like this was a legal requirement for driving a bus in London. We don’t have Mr Arnold to talk to directly so what can we find out about him from this licence? Can you see the diver’s name and addresses? You will have to study the handwriting carefully or use the transcript. Have a look on a London street map to see if the roads are still there? Have a good look at the photograph of Francis Arnold. What sort of clothes is he wearing, how does he look and what sort of man do you think he might have been?

Enlarge Francis Arnold's driving licence

AEC Renown LT (Copyright London Transport) From Francis' licence we know he was able to drive three different types of bus. Here is a photograph of the Renown LT bus which was manufactured by the AEC company in the 1930s for the London General Omnibus Company.

Have a careful look at the design, what do you see? What are the similarities and differences between this bus design and modern buses?

To see how hard he might have worked look at the duty rota from another bus station in Hertford dated 1938.

London Passenger Transport Board duty rota 1938
Enlarge the duty rota

Life was very turbulent in the early Twentieth Century, even for ordinary men like Francis Arnold. Working men and women were organising themselves to protest against poor wages and shorter working hours. A bus driver would be earning approximately two pounds and five shillings a week in the 1930s which is equivalent to about two pounds and twenty five pence nowadays

During the General Strike in 1926, many workers stopped work in protest. If you carried on driving the buses during a strike you probably did it with a police or army escort who was armed. If you wanted to get to work or get home again all you could do was queue for the few buses that were running, hitch a lift in a truck or car, or walk!

General strike buses with miltary escort

Bomb damage 1943 (Copyright East Kent Stagecoach)

Another war broke out in Europe in 1939. Public transport had to operate under difficult conditions as this photograph shows. The nightly bombing raids devastated towns and cities and petrol rationing reduced timetables and bus routes.

What feelings do you think you might have been experiencing as a bus driver during WW2?

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