How we did holidays in the 1920s ………..

It is easy to forget that for many people in the 1920s a holiday was something which might be limited to a day or two at the seaside.

Dad with two passengers, date unknown

It would not be until 1938 that “after pressure from the unions and the International Labour Organisation, the government passed the Holidays with Pay Act. It finally gave some workers (those whose minimum rates of wages were fixed by trade boards) the right to one week of paid holiday per year.” *

Ready for the off with dad, date unknown

So, for most working people the holidays that our dad offered were far beyond their means.

He was a coach driver and for most of his career he worked for Glenton Tours of New Cross in southeast London.

After a series of jobs in the motor trade, first in Newcastle and Yorkshire he moved to London in the mid 1920s and started with the company he stayed with till he retired in 1982.

Glenton Tours offered luxury guided trips around Britain and the Continent, with hotel accommodation and full board, taking in the sights as far north as Scotland and down across Europe to the Alps. **

Happy passengers and dad, date unknown

For middle class families they were a good way to see new places, and along the way get to know the history of where they visited.

By the 1930s Dad was one of the two drivers in the fleet who worked the Continent, and apart from the interruption of the last world war did so until the 1980s.

His work, the trips he did, and the cost is something I have regularly written about including the economics of the business.

But I have always concentrated on the period from the 1950s through the 60s when I remember him coming home on a Friday night only to be off again the following morning.

Unknown passenger, unknown location, and unknown date

So, for now I shall just reflect on those earlier years with photographs from his “work album” some of which will be nearly a hundred years.

There are a lot of them, and so far, I haven’t been able to locate where any of them were taken, and the identities of the passengers are lost forever.

Boarding the coach, date unknown

A few of the passengers pose with dad and some women crop up on their own and while it is tempting to speculate on a romantic connection we will never know.

What is remarkable is that in a pre mobile age, all these pictures would have been taken, commercially developed and then they would have been sent to dad.

This I know because we do have some letters from passengers thanking him and commenting on what a wonderful holiday they had had.

Leaving me just to enjoy a collection of pictures of how we did our holidays long ago.

Location; the 1920s straying into the next decade

Pictures; dad, some coaches and a heap of happy passengers, 1920s and 1930s, from the Simpson collection.

Posing for the camera, date unknown

*Campaigning for paid holiday for everyone, TUC 150, https://tuc150.tuc.org.uk/stories/campaigning-for-paid-holiday-for-everyone/

**Glenton Tours, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Glenton%20Tours