Joseph Clough: London’s first Black bus driver
Introduction
Joseph Clough, known as Joe to his friends and family, was London’s first Black bus driver. He was also among the very first drivers of motor buses in London, as petrol engines began to replace horse-drawn transport.
From Jamaica to London
Joe was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1887, being orphaned when only a boy. He began work at a young age for a Scottish doctor, Dr R C White, who employed Joe as a stable hand.
When his employer moved to Britain in 1906, Joe agreed to go with him to live and work in London. Joe started by driving a pair of horses, but soon learned to drive motor vehicles, working as Dr White’s chauffeur.
London bus driver
After a stint working as a roller skate fitter at Hackney roller skating rink, Joe turned his driving experience to buses. In 1910 he joined the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), the largest bus operation in London. Joe trained at Shepherd’s Bush garage, being among the first drivers to be trained to drive the new motor buses.
Joe experienced racism during his life and career. In a later 1970 newspaper article, he recalled: ‘The only time I had trouble in London I had a boy used to call after me. He called me “Blackie”, and one night I stopped him and slapped him, and he said, “What you done that for?”. I said, “Where I come from we don’t call after people, especially your elders. It is very rude.” And he didn’t do it again.’
Driving route 11
After completing his training, Joe became a spare driver, driving different routes when needed. He then became a regular driver on bus route 11, operating between Liverpool Street and Wormwood Scrubs. A photograph captures Joe in his driver’s uniform standing immediately alongside the open cab of his B type bus, the first mass produced motor bus.
Although generally accepted by his colleagues, Joe was wrongfully suspended for speeding by a racist company official. His excellent driving record and good character led to his rapid reinstatement. It was not the last time he encountered racism, whether casual or overt.
Joe worked as a LGOC driver until just before the First World War, when he moved to Bedfordshire after marrying Margaret Millicent, a Scottish domestic servant. He continued to work as a bus driver for a small bus operation on routes between St Neots in Cambridgeshire and Bedford.
As Joe recalled in a later newspaper article, driving motor buses at a time when horse-drawn transport was still present could be challenging: ‘We got a lot of trouble from horses on the road. When they heard the bus engine, they used to shy and kick like billy-ho.’
We got a lot of trouble from horses on the road. When they heard the bus engine, they used to shy and kick like billy-ho.
Wartime Army service
Like many of his bus driving colleagues, Joe volunteered to join the Army Service Corps as a driver after the outbreak of the First World War. He joined at Kempston Barracks in Bedford and served in the Army as an ambulance driver from 1915 until 1919, largely on the Western Front in northern France and Belgium.
He forged a strong bond with the comrades of his unit and was the captain of their cricket team during their limited leisure time. For many years after the war, Joe drove his bus decorated with poppies at Remembrance Day parades in Bedford.
Life in Bedford
After demobilisation from the Army, Joe continued to live and work in the Bedford area with his family. He and his wife Margaret had two daughters, Jean and Margaret Grace, in the early 1920s. Joe returned to bus driving for the National Omnibus Company (later the Eastern National Omnibus Company) in Bedford and continued in this role until 1947. After a time as a truck driver, he set himself up as a taxi driver in 1949, only retiring in 1968 at the age of 82.
In the 1970s, Joe featured in several television programmes and newspaper articles following being interviewed for a book by author John Brown that studied Bedford’s immigrant communities. As well as being the first Black London bus driver, Joe was thought to be Bedford’s first Black immigrant. He was a respected figure in all the communities in which he lived. When one of Joe’s former First World War comrades wrote to him in the 1970s, addressing the letter to ‘Jamaican Joe, taxi-driver, Bedford’, the letter arrived with no delay.
Joe died in December 1976, aged 89.
