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Reunion Dinner Puzzle

Michael_Ingram

Michael_Ingram

gone but not forgotten
Can anyone help with this photo? It was taken by a Handsworth photographer - Taylor's Press Service, 366 Soho Road.
I have fiddled with the exposure and can see that the menus on the table read 'Reunion Dinner'; nothing else is clear enough to identify.
My Dad is in the photo and he was in the Royal Engineers in WW1. He was also a bus driver at the time and it is probably taken sometime in the thirties. I can't see working bus drivers would be having a reunion.
If it is an Army reunion, I am puzzled that there is no evidence of medals or badges. My dad went to St Matthias' school and it would hardly be a reunion for there.
Any ideas; you may even recognize a relative?
reunion_dinner.jpg
 
thats a cracking photo mike...with no sign of medals being worn i doubt a ww1 reunion ..they all look to be about the same age though..hope you get to bottom of the mystery..ps which one is your dad..

lyn
 
On the wall, left upper picture of the crew from HMS Taku, think nothing to do with the Reunion
 
It's Springtime & the man second from the left on the back row looks to be 'in charge' as he is the only one with a wing collar & a bow tie.
 
mike i know this wont help you identify what the reunion was for but it looks to be held in maybe the upstairs function room of a pub...

lyn
 
I would say it was a works do of some type, definitely non military, so if not club related then not a lot left??.
 
I'm bit doubtful about a works do. Dad was a bus driver at the Hockley Brook depot. If it was a works do I would have thought there would be a greater age range and also women present. I don't think that there were women drivers in the thirties but I think there were probably women conductors. I know there were in the forties as my sister-in-law was one. You could be right though; it could have been for drivers only or perhaps a union dinner. But as I say, I would have thought there would have been a greater age range. These all look of the right age for WW1 veterans. I don't know of any clubs that Dad belong to and he had no interest in sports. He was in the Signals Company of the Royal Engineers and so when he was not at work he was mending neighbours' wirelesses and showing me how to make a crystal set.
It was just a chance though. Somebody may have recognized a relative - the puzzle remains
 
it is a puzzle mike..obviously the word reunion suggests that in part at least these men most likely knew each other..trouble is where from ?? fingers crossed somebody may recognize one of the men in photo and have the answer for you

lyn
 
Last edited:
Hi Mike, I'm unable to read the actual menu cards but you mention "perhaps a union dinner". Can you definitely tell that the menu says "reunion dinner" and not "union dinner"? Dave.
 
farmerdave said:
Hi Mike, I'm unable to read the actual menu cards but you mention "perhaps a union dinner". Can you definitely tell that the menu says "reunion dinner" and not "union dinner"? Dave.
Click to expand...


thats a good point dave...im afraid even with my glasses on i just cant make it out...hopefully someone may do better

lyn
 
It definitly says Reunion Dinner. I used Photoshop to fiddle with the photo and that can bee seen clearly as it is in fairly large letters. unfortunatly the other text is to small and of low resolution; when enlarged it is just distorted blotches.
 
Mike. I was wondering whether anything momentous happened at the Hockley Bus Garage in the 1930s that would warrant a reunion. Well, according to the book, "Birmingham Buses, Route by Route 1925-1975", by Martin Keeley, Hockley was the tram depot for the Soho Road routes and was converted to buses on 2 April 1939. Hence, the Hockley Garage was for both trams and buses up to 1 April 1939 but converted to only buses on 2 April 1939. This might have been quite a big event for the Hockley Garage so perhaps there could have been a reunion for ex-tram or bus drivers. The time of year that this happens, April, also ties in with daffodils on the reunion meal tables. Against this theory, the ages of the participants seem to be fairly similar, although there are a couple of older people. Dave
 
Hi All,

Re Michaels comment at post 13 I can categorically state that there were no conductresses on the buses or trams in the 1920s or 1930s. There were conductresses in WW1 as they replaced the men. When the men returned from the front they went back to the buses and the women left. Not fair I know but that is how it was in those days. The conductresses (known as clippies) returned during WW2. However, after the war those who wished remained as clippies until the buses became driver only. Now, of course, we have women drivers. Now to the nitty gritty.

It is being assuimed that this photo was taken during the 1930s. HMS Taku was laid down in 1937 and its first commission was in Januiary 1939. It would ber unlikely that a photo was hanging on a wall during 1939 as the ship was in its infancy. Likewise it is unlikely that any reunion tpok place in the 1940s due to the war and rationing. That brings us to the 1950s. The Nautical Club was formed in the early 1950s and was based at the Swan Hotel in Ryder Street in its early years until a building was ercted in Bishopgate Street The photgraphs of a ships crew and a ship are hanging in the room and I suggest that it was a room in the Swan Hotel used by the Nautical Club
which, at the time, only met once or twice a week. We now come to Mr Ingram (Senior) who because of his dress seems to me to be there in an official capacity. I suggest this could be Master of Ceremonies and he did this during his spare time. It is possible that Michael did not know about this.

The reunion could be bus drivers but I think iot more likely to have been ma group that served in some capacity in WW2. How about Home Guard, ARP of AFS for instance. I doubty if we will ever know what the reunion was in aid of but I am certain that it was in the 1950s and probably at the Swan Hotel.

Old Boy
 
Many thanks Old Boy. The HMS Taku may narrow it down but I know that this is not the fifties - Dad is too young here. There was a previous Taku in WW1 I believe but as you can see from the detail below it is difficult to date the photo. Being a photo in a photo, the resolution and focus are poor. The Swan Hotel is a good suggestion. At first I thought it was a pub room but then I remembered that there was no chance of getting a meal in a pub in the old days; so it has to be a hotel.
But I think I have part of a solution - see next post!
hmstaku.jpg
 
Well now I know - probably. This photo is marked on the back: Safety First Supper, 15 October 1955. My Dad, looking much older, without dickie bow, bottom row far left with glasses. The group has got smaller but I bet they are all in the former photo. They must be bus drivers; Dad was still one at the time. He was to retire and get his Smith's gold watch in six months.
Now, what was the Safety First Group and who else has a dad in the photo?
safety.jpg
 
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