Photograph details

© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Two First World War women bus conductors employed by Thomas Tilling Ltd pose on the boarding platform of a Tilling TTA1 Petrol Electric motorbus, at the Swan and Sugar Loaf Hotel, South Croydon.

Unknown photographer, 1917

Location: Croydon

Image no: Ukn

Inventory no: 1998/84339

20th Century London caption: These two bus conductors are on a Thomas Tilling bus, route 75, in 1917. When the men joined the armed forces to fight in the First World War, women were hired to fill their jobs. The first women conductor appeared on a Tilling bus in November 1915. Despite women's invaluable contribution to the war effort, when the war ended the male workers returned to their old jobs, and the women were dismissed. The picture was taken outside the Swan and Sugarloaf Hotel in South Croydon. A destination for London buses for many years, the Swan and Sugarloaf was a hotel and bar in 2006.

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