The picture, from the “Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs” website, shows the funeral procession for Mr Sidney Matthews of Tower Street, Terriers, passing along Amersham Road, High Wycombe, in January 1951.

Mr Matthews had been a bus driver with London Transport, which at that time had garages at both High Wycombe and Amersham. The group of men in front of the hearse would have been former colleagues.

The bus leading the procession, LN4743, has a remarkable history.

It was an AEC B type built for the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), a forerunner of London Transport, in 1911.

At the beginning of the Great War in 1914, it was one of several hundred B types commandeered by the War Department and sent to France for transporting troops to and from the front line. There was no time for it to be repainted and initially it went to the front in its red and white colours and with advertisements for soap and whisky!

It was later repainted into a less conspicuous dark green and its windows were boarded up. Embellishments such as the names of the battles in which the buses had served were added - Somme, Ancre, Ypres and Antwerp. The bus was named “Ole Bill” after a Great War cartoon character.

Incredibly, the bus served in this way for almost five years and was returned to England in 1919. It was inspected by the LGOC, its former owner, considered worthy of repair and returned to London bus service with a replacement body of the same type.

In 1920 it was chosen to convey a group of ex-servicemen to Buckingham Palace for inspection by King George V and thereafter was presented to the Auxiliary Omnibus Companies Old Comrades’ Association.

It continued to be used for special events, such as the annual Remembrance Day parade in Whitehall. It was also made available for busmen’s funerals, the other picture shows the bus leading the procession at the funeral of bus driver Frank Wright in High Wycombe on February 1, 1938.

“Ole Bill” was finally retired in 1970. It was then presented to the Imperial War Museum at Lambeth, being driven there by Mr George Gwynn, a veteran ex-serviceman.

The bus can still be seen at the IWM’s site at Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

I am grateful to Peter Wilks for supplying this information.

Peter’s hobby is the history of old buses and he has kindly supplied much relevant information about many of those shown on the SWOP website, www.swop.org.uk.