Red & White Services
Red & White Services was a bus company operating in south east Wales and Gloucestershire, England between 1929 and 1978.
Red & White evolved into Red & White United Transport Ltd, formed in 1937, which owned bus and road freight companies in the United Kingdom and southern Africa. When the group's UK bus interests were sold to the British Transport Commission in 1950, the group changed its name to United Transport Company.
In 1922 John Watts of Lydney, Gloucestershire, started two bus companies. One, Gloucestershire Transport, ran local bus services around Lydney. The other, The Valleys Motor Bus Services, ran buses around Tredegar in South Wales. Both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring nearby operators. In 1926 the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were operating buses between Gloucester, Hereford and South Wales.
In 1929 John Watts formed Red & White Services Ltd to bring together the various bus companies he had formed or acquired.
In 1929 Red & White entered the long distance coach market, initially from Gloucester and between London and South Wales. In the early 1930s coach operators were acquired further afield, with services between London, Liverpool and Glasgow and between Cardiff and Blackpool. In 1934 Red & White was one of the founder members of the Associated Motorways consortium.
The company expanded rapidly during the 1930s, by now from new headquarters in Chepstow. It acquired several bus companies in the Swansea area and elsewhere in South Wales. In 1933 Red & White acquired the business of Red Bus Services of Stroud. Also in 1933 Red & White purchased All-British Travels Ltd. This company had been formed in 1930 by coach operators George Taylor of Chester, Alfred Harding of Birkenhead and J.W. Scott of Edinburgh, with sleeping partner Evan R. Davies, a solicitor in Pwllheli. Under the fleet name of 'All-British Line' the initial intention was to run express coach services to and from Liverpool and Llandudno to London via Taylor's Market Square car showroom in Chester and to operate a central London travel agency to advertise those services and the other coach services of the respective companies. This express coach service to and from London commenced on 14 April 1930. When Red & White purchased All-British Travels Ltd in January 1933, this included an option to purchase the final remaining All-British Line service between Liverpool and London which was operated by Taylor and which subsequently went ahead. George Taylor was paid £850 for the goodwill of the service and the All-British Line service between Liverpool and London ceased on 26 September 1933. Taylor continued in the coach excursion business and car trade in Chester up to 1972.
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