The Douglas Smith Years

"Royal Manor Coaches" and "Smith's of Portland"

This page will provide information and photographs from 1924 to 1986.

Douglas Smith was born 1924 (my father); he joined his father in the business as soon as he could.

They started young in them days, Douglas Smith 1930

Apart from a brief spell in the forces during to the war years, Douglas Smith continued to run Smiths Coaches until his retirement in 1986, with the whole family including sister, Aileen they ran a number of cars, and coaches.

R.J.Smith Mrs M. Smith Mr D Smith and Miss A Smith

Aileen in Easton Square 1942

As the business grew more cars were bought, new bigger faster more reliable, and soon it was not uncommon to drive to London and back in a day - no mean feat in 1946.  I will digress from the story of Smiths Coaches slightly to tell you that my father lived for a short time in the higher lighthouse at Portland Bill, as at that time he was the driver for the famous Dr Marie Stopes the eminent women's campaigner, who spent her summers on the Island, my brother Michael was actually born in the lighthouse.

Wedding at St Johns in Weymouth, right to left Mr Pope Austin A70 1954, NOP 020 Mr Roy Wilkinson Austin 16hp JPX 517 1947, Mr D.Smith Austin FTW 97, The car on the right was sold when I was about 6 or 7 I got so upset that Dad bought me a lego set.

1937 Austin 12HT JT 9599 in Devon 1946, notice the sun roof

Douglas Smith and Roy Wilkinson looking very smart ( probably their De-Mob suits) outside the R.N.Church in the grounds of Portland hospital.

Salvation Army School trip front row tenth from right Master M D Smith in 1953.

Parked in Park Road just off Easton Square around 1950 - Bedford 26 seater VN 7272 bought from a government war sale, car is registration number BRH 760.

 I should at this point explain the reasoning behind the name changes, we think Snappy Dick (Richard John Smith’s) nickname, probably just used smith taxi or cabs, and the Portland Bus Service was more of a description rather than a name, so when the business was properly established it was called, “Royal Manor Coaches” and was so for many years , but with introduction of improved regulations, some bright spark decided that “Royal Manor Coaches” was claiming patronage to the royal family. 

Now you and I know that was nonsense, as everybody knows that Portland is a Royal Manor and running a coach company on a Royal Manor it makes sense to call it such , but Dad was not the sort of bloke to argue and changed the name there and then to “Smith’s of Portland”, when I took the reins so to speak I changed it to “Smiths Coaches Portland” as to me Smiths of Portland could be anything from a dress shop to a butchers, but that was an argument  my father and I had on numerous occasions and is now long forgotten.

Fleet in Easton Square about 1960 Left to right JPX 517 HP16 4 seats 1947 , NOP 820 Austin A 70 4 seats 1954, FTW 97 Austin 18HS 1937 6 seats, OPR 260 Austin A55 12 seats PSV Coach 1960 brought new for £1,000.00, HAA 588 Bedford 28HT 29 seats. Bought from Pump Saunders with stage licence, HAH 786 Austin 28HP petrol engine bought from Gourds in Devon for £250.00, Bedford 35 seater petrol engine bought from Blue Birds coaches of Weymouth

Taxi and the use of coaches running out of Portland dockyard was in its day fairly lucrative, the Navy at that time was large and strong, and many, many ships from all around the world came and went, some would stay for a few days, other for weeks on end, and as a small boy I can well remember walking up and down the aisle of the coach collecting fares from the sailors, as we would take them to the bright lights of Weymouth, well I say bright lights, the place was very much like it is now - not exactly inviting, but if you had been at sea for 3 to 6 months looking at a grey bulkhead everynight I guess Weymouth really was the place to go , and go they did in there thousands. I can remember one occasion on our way back from Weymouth arriving at the taxi rank in Castletown, me about 10 years old, Dad behind the wheel of a Bedford OB 29 seater, pulling up to a mass of German, Dutch, and American sailors, hundreds of them all desperate to get to Weymouth, piling on the bus three a seat and quite literally throwing money at me, they no idea how much the fare should be? And I had no idea how much they had given me? Well at 10 years old did you know the exchange rate for a dollar or mark to the pound? I just grabbed the notes stuffed them into my little cash bag and threw the tickets, fantastic I loved it, and I guess it was then that I knew I too would one day follow the family tradition of coaching.

Top left, Mum Mike and me by the side of a Bedford  JT 7273 .  Bottom right, Petrol engine Austin 29 seater side-sliding door at Portland Bill 1957

Mr Douglas Smith in Easton Square with the Armstrong Siddley 1936 17HP bought from Merchants of Dorchester for £375.00 only done 17,000 miles at the time, photo taken sometime between Jan and Dec 1942 notice head light black out shields still in place, plus you can see the ARP lights on the front this alowed dad to drive people who had been bombed out to another house.

Now the licence to run this service was bought by Douglas from a chap called Pump Saunders, and was in three parts, one part of the license allowed for a service from Victoria Square to Weymouth, the second was an extension that allowed the service to pick up at Castletown should the fleet be in dock, and the third part to operate from Victoria Square to Portland Bill, now Pump had not ran the Victoria Square to Portland Bill part for many many years, and it was this licence that my father and I used to start the second Portland bus service, but I plan to have a whole section dedicated to this service, the vehicles that were used and how it all ran including the famous battle of David and Goliath so aptly named by the TV at the time. Plus I will also explain the National bus company's role in it all.

GJT 893 Bedford Duple in Easton Square 35 seater

MDP 449 Bedford 1955 41 seater coach on first tour to Llandudno in  1966 bought from Smiths of Reading for £1,000.00 left to right Mrs Dine, Mrs Rosa Smith (R.J.Smith second wife) Mrs Stewkesbury, Mrs Bearn, "in Window" Mr Pilkinson, Mr Hunt.

Douglas Smith also had a number of school contracts on Portland, and even took the school children their dinners as in those days there was an Underhill junior school out on the cliff of Fortuneswell , a Brackenbury infant school in Fortuneswell, and a Grove infant school up near the Borstal, all of whom had no kitchens, so the children’s meals were all cooked at the Tophill secondary modern school in Weston road, a school I hasten to add taught me all I knew (but we can’t just blame them for that) these dinners were cooked and packed into large and not very light aluminium containers and Dad would ship them round the island.  Now if you remember your school dinners, it was not that great!  Well imagine how it would have looked slopping around in an aluminium tray for half an hour before you got it, mince and mash all in one yuk - horrible; poor kids.

Also each day Dad would drive around the island collecting and returning the children to school, and that included driving a coach right to the top of the Verne road each day, as in them days the prison had a number of staff living up past the prison in prefabricated houses left from the war, all now demolished, but the feat of getting a coach up there was no mean one, for a start it’s very steep and has 14 hair-pin bends and with parked cars it was a nightmare journey, no power stearing then!but each day twice a day the run would be completed.

Portland Bill JPX 517, CYX 610 Austin 18HP 1936, HAH 786 Austin 28HP petrol 29 seater bought for £250.00 sold cheap as the con rods had the wrong caps.

Bedford 41 seater bought from the coal board, where it had been used everyday from new to take miners to and from the pits, to say it was dirty would indeed be an understatement, but the seats were if perfect condition and the body work unmarked. After six months of stripping and cleaning she looked as good as new.

I mentioned the Prison and Borstal work that was done and this indeed went on after I joined in fact the Borstal contract was the longest single contract that Dad had 31 years, and during that time boys and men would be brought to the establishments on regular weekly runs to Cardiff and Bristol plus Oxford, Winchester, Wormwood Scrubs,Wandsworth (and even the womens prison at Holloway)  boys and men taken to prisons and courts in just about every town and city in the country, to have further sentences imposed or to act as witnesses for trials, I would like to tell of some of my experiences carrying theses people but I think we’ll leave it till later when I became a full time worker now still in the late sixties early seventies its Douglas Smiths company, and it was time for something new.

This was to be a coaching holiday Dad had a friend call Mrs Jackson who lived in Easton and along with her help later Mrs Deadman of Southwell would take up the role. 

Dad arranged a weeks long holiday to Hastings with trips out each day to places of interest the coach was filled with local people all Portland born and bred and off they went, well to say it was a success would be an understatement and it was soon clear from the passengers who wanted to book there and then for the next one that Dad was on to a winner, over the next few years Dad took the people of Portland to exotic locations like Scotland, Blackpool, Scarborough, Llandudno, Hastings, Looe and Polperro and many more. 

Now you have to understand that some of these people did not have a car and very rarely travelled out of Dorset some not even off the island apart from a bit of shopping in Weymouth , so a week or two  to another part of the country was some experience to behold and Dad was the one to do it for a start he was a very steady and safe driver that made everybody comfortable, plus he had was I guess you could call the gift of the gab, he did research to find the best places to go and found out all about them so he always had something interesting to tell the passengers, some got so excited they dropped down dead but then the man I mean did have a dickey heart and died in his hotel bed.

JAK 950N Bedford 45 seater Plaxton YRQ its fair to say this was Douglas Smith's favourite coach at the time