Reg Davies |  |
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Reg Davies, 1908-2001, was a lovely man who ate, slept and breathed buses. He joined the Vectis Bus Company (no ‘Southern’ in the title yet) in 1923, aged just 14, starting as a conductor and stayed there for the next 50 years, ending up working in the Southern Vectis head office at Nelson Road, Newport, before retiring in 1972. Reg had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the company that Leonard Dodson, the owner, had founded in 1921. He also had an almost inexhaustible supply of stories relating to his life on the buses. The recording was made one autumn night in 1983. Reg tells of regular ‘sackings’ by Dodson, “You’re fired!” he would bark - but the sackings were never carried out.
Reg is telling of the first days of bus services on the Island 100 years ago. There was no regulation, no time tables and no bus stops - buses could pick up and set down at will. When Reg talks of ‘chasing’ and ‘chasers’ he is referring to the practice of rival companies chasing a bus with the intention of overtaking it in order to snatch away the passengers waiting along the route.
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 Reg in 1994, at Portsmouth Harbour station, just about to embark on a new life in Australia with his daughter, taking nothing more than hand luggage with him. |  When we recorded Reg, he told us, “We used to go into Yelf’s in the Square for a cup of tea. I’ve got a photo of me and Gerald (Yelf) stood in the doorway.” After the recording Reg provided us with this photo. (Yelf’s was 104 St James Square – in 2024 home to the I.W. Observer newspaper). |
 This a 29 seater ‘Y Type Daimler’ bus, seen here in 1924, a bus which Reg refers to in the audio clip. |
 Referring to the Fairlee Road incident, Reg told us, “Charlie said, “There you are, madam,” he said, “Out the back way instead of the front!” Course, Frank Lacey pulled round in front, got out his camera and took a picture of me and Charlie Taylor stood by the bus.” |
 In the 1930s, the Vectis bus fleet was garaged in this shed at Somerton, Cowes, currently occupied by Acclaim Logistics, formerly Steve Porter Transport. | |