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Joseph 'Joe' Clough was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1887, but was orphaned in childhood. As a boy, he worked as a stable hand looking after polo ponies for the Scottish Dr RC White.
In February 1906, a young servant and his employer stepped off a boat from the West Indies at Bristol docks. The servant, frozen with cold in spite of his new warm underwear and exhausted by seasickness, was Joseph Clough, one of the very first West Indians to emigrate to Britain. He would never see the Caribbean again.
Joe's public transport career started in 1908, when he was employed as a bus driver by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), the largest bus company in the world at that time. Unknown to Joe he was making history - as London's first black motorbus driver. He trained at Shepherd's Bush garage, passed his Scotland Yard driving tests and became a spare driver. Soon, Joe was driving a B-type motorbus along the LGOC's route No. 11 between Liverpool Street and Wormwood Scrubs.
Up until the end of the Second World War, Joe was Bedford’s only black inhabitant. He died in January 1977 and his impact on Bedford’s community is still felt today, as people continue to talk about him with huge affection and respect nearly 30 years after his death. |
