🚌Charabanc old photos🚌but who is Mr Moustache?🚌

Charabanc or Char-a-Banc came from the French ‘carriages with benches’. I can’t imagine they were very comfortable on a long tour around the sites of the South West and beyond. But there seems to be a lot of photographic evidence of hundreds and thousands of people taking a trip in one, mostly during the time between the two wars. I’ve always loved group photos and have a few Charabancs trip photos in my collection.

Here’s Mr Moustache wearing his white coat and peaked cap and with his Charabanc full of day trippers, photo taken by Whitworths of Salisbury. This is the only postcard with no writing on the back.

Then just before last Christmas, I spotted some for sale on eBay and they had the same driver, so I bought them. Then a few weeks later another one of Mr Moustache, so I bought that too.

This one says “Taken May 26th 1923 people from Morovian Church, Coronation Avenue, Bath”.

This one says “Taken at Cheddar Sunday July 1st/23 Afternoon tour”.

Then at the beginning of this March, another seller on eBay had a few more of Mr Moustache so of course I had to buy them!

This one says “Bristol Co-op, Princess Street. Bristol to Wells, Cheddar, Burnham and Weston. July 7th /26”.

“Tour to Cheddar and Weston. Aug 17th/22”.

“Taken on Weymouth Road. Sunday June 5th 1921 from Bristol”.

“Taken at Weymouth. Sunday June 5th 1921 from Bristol”.

“Taken at Salisbury June 27th /25 From Guildhall, Bath. Lee’s outing to Portsmouth”.

As I’m writing this blog I’m waiting for a few more that I’ve bought to arrive too. I have missed out on a couple as the winning bids went past what I was prepared to pay, but nevertheless, I’m really pleased with this little collection.

“Oldfield Park Baptist Church, Triangle, Bath to Cheddar, Burnham and Weston July 9th 1923. Taken at Cheddar”.

“Day tour Sunday Aug 9th/25 to Portsmouth and Southsea”.

“Taken at Salisbury. July 3rd/26. Withers Bath outing to Portsmouth”.

Of course, the thing now is that I would love to know the identity of Mr Moustache and any other information about him and the company he worked for, who were they? Were they based in Bath or Bristol or Salisbury or somewhere else? What type of motor Charabanc is Mr Moustache driving? Can anyone help with any information at all?

The five more have arrived, yay!

Stamp on the back for Whitworths of Salisbury. No writing.

“Harris’s Factory, Calne. Outing to Cheddar and Weston Aug 19th /22”.

There are way too many results on the 1921 census on Find My Past when I put in Salisbury or Bath and occupation Driver in the search boxes, too many to narrow down. So I need help to find this chap.

“Victoria Arms Larkhall. Cheddar and Burnham. Aug 5th /22”

This is the back and all the writing on the back is identical to this.

It looks very likely to me to have been a collection written on and owned by Mr Moustache or his family as the writing is all by the same hand, did he collect all these old postcards of his journeys? I have one more to come so that will be 18 of Mr Moustache through the years 1920 to 1926.

It’s arrived, this is the last one below, it arrived a few days ago and again the same writing on the back.

The last one and it says “St Saviours Church to Weymouth. June 26th 1924”.

Any information or help to try and identify this driver would be very very welcome, maybe you could share this blog with groups or people in the South West in the hope of someone recognising him🚌Please comment on this blog or send me an email to lynnswaffles@gmail.com

🎶🎙️Well we’re going out in the charabanc
We’re just as happy as we can be🎙️🎶from ‘Going Down to Bangor’ by Van Morrison🚌

Till next time then……