By the end of the war, the AAGB were headquartered at 44 Lower Belgrave Street, SW1 however for most of it, their headquarters was 9 Grosvenor Gardens, SW1. We'd long wondered what the links to these buildings were but now we’ve found one, as to why they were headquartered  at 9 Grosvenor Gardens. In 1907Continue reading "The surprising link between the AAGB and firefighting"

Once again that’s another year gone and what a year it’s been, unfortunately around this time a year ago we lost a great friend, Ray, but his enthusiasm and belief in what we were doing has lived on. We’ve gained quite a few more original items and photographs and learned so much more about theContinue reading "Christmas 2019"

As we move into December I thought I’d post about this, this is an original AAGB Christmas card. Unfortunately we don’t have many details about it however think it’s a lovely albeit simple card!

This is an extra post away from the normal fortnightly ones! A week ago a post that we has scheduled speculated more on the links between the AAGB and the Mechanised Transport Corps. I always knew some drivers were provided by the MTC but recently uncovered documents show that actually, over 50% of the 'AAGB'Continue reading "Deeper MTC links"

Here is a photo from the collection of Miss M B Wilford which may well be one of her. This photo is interesting as it proves the links between the AAGB and Mechanised Transport Corps. In this photo the member is wearing MTC uniform, MTC badges all round, the cap has blue piping around theContinue reading "Miss Wilford proving links between the AAGB and MTC"

We’ve been lucky enough to track down more items from the collection of Miss M B Wilford. In this lot we got some photographs (two of which we don’t have copies of) a copy of the MTC rules and regulations 1943, also is Miss Wilford’s sam browne belt. We’ve also got from her our firstContinue reading "More from M B Wilford"

While in Leeds we snapped some photos of St John’s Church. This is where Leeds driver Ruth Davies got married in 1943, most of the members of Leeds who were able to were there and in fact the church is only a 5 min walk from where their station was. Ruth married Surgeon Lieutenant CommanderContinue reading "An AAGB Marriage in Leeds"

We’ve posted about AAGB playing cards before, they appear to have been in red and blue. We were really pleased to receive this near mint unopened package of blue ones. They’re in great condition, still in their original tax wrapper! We believe these cards will have been sold to raise funds for the AAGB.

This is the last of our posts with our “Leeds Then and Now” series. This fortnight we look at a visit from John G Winant, American Ambassador who visited the Leeds station in we believe 1942. They paraded outside Leeds Civic hall with an impressive lineup of vehicles.

While in London a while back we popped along to somewhere important in the history of the AAGB. No26&27 Knightsbridge is the former site of Alexandra Hotel. On the night of 10th May 1941, a single high explosive bomb tore through the roof of the hotel, detonating in the foyer. While we may never knowContinue reading "Site of the Alexandra Hotel"