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Men Who Make Transport-26

25th March 1960, Page 38
25th March 1960
Page 38
Page 39
Page 38, 25th March 1960 — Men Who Make Transport-26
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Robert Barr

THE chairman of Barr and Wallace Arnold Trust, Ltd., at the age of 70, is certainly a veteran of motorized road haulage and perhaps a true pioneer of the passenger-carrying sector of the industry. From his earliest years, Robert Barr harboured an urgent desire to introduce the townsmen of the bleak, industrial centres of Yorkshire to the beauties of their native county, so close to their homes, but almost unknown to them. Today, Wallace Arnold coaches carry more than 60,000 people a year on extended tours alone.

Robert Barr. was born on his father's farm near Wakefield. In 1903, he was fascinated by the possibilities presented by a demonstration of motor vehicles, but his father, a Scot of traditional outlook, regarded them as inventions of the devil and would have none of them. Much against the family wishes, young Barr, at the age of 14, stuck to his views and departed to Leeds, there to apprentice himself to a motor engineer for seven years.

At the end of his training, he had saved sufficient money to buy a Karrier chassis, complete with both haulage and char-h-bancs bodies. From Monday to Friday night he operated as a haulier: at the week-end, he carried increasing numbers of people away from the towns into the Dales or the Yorkshire coast.

By 1914 he had three vehicles, at least until the Army called for them in August. Mr. Barr volunteered for transport duties and while waiting for his summons to the Colours, managed to buy three British _Ensigns which he

worked on behalf of the Yorkshire Copper Works. In fact, he never was called up and the haulage business prospered until passenger carrying returned in 1919.

Weary of war and its inevitable restrictions on movement, people were glad to avail themselves of the Barr excursion facilities. His first extended tour was to the Empire Exhibition at Wembley. This was followed by tours to Devon, Cornwall, Scotland and Wales: the haulage business continued to thrive in parallel.

The year 1926 is important, for it was then that the name Barr was first coupled with Wallace Arnold, another Leeds coaching business. Wallace Arnold's comprised Wallace Cunningham and Arnold Crowe, and they brought several solid-tyred A.E.C. and Leyland vehicles into the new enterprise. A year later, the haulage and passenger businesses were separated: the lorries operated under the name R. Barr (Leeds), Ltd., and the coaches under the title of Wallace Arnold Tours, Ltd. With renewed confidence in the enlarged company, Mr. Barr ordered six new Leyland Lioness coaches with pneumatic tyres and luxury coachwork by London Lorries. In spite of industrial depression, things went well until 1930 and its Road Traffic Act.

Although the company suffered some restrictions on fleet size, most of its terminal points were granted. Robert Barr was an active member of the Commercial Motor Users' Association and led the fight of the Northern operators for improved facilities. In 1932, he lobbied members of the House of Commons and was received by the Minister of Transport. After that, matters improved and until the outbreak of war in 1939, Mr. Barr was busy acquiring relatively small coach businesses in the Leeds and Bradford areas to strengthen the licence position.

Family Control Retained The company's first Continental tour was run in 1933 and proved extremely popular. With the formation of the Barr and Wallace Arnold Trust, Ltd., in 1937, the enterprise became a public company in which the majority shareholders were the Barr family. In the years immediately before the war, the company was standardizing on Leyland vehicles, a policy which proved wise in the years when spares were scarce. Many vehicles were requisitioned, but Mr. Barr bought 50 others and with them ran works services, ferried troops and moved prisoners of war to the farms where they were put to work.

With the end of hostilities, he proved to be as energetic and enterprising as ever. He bought two hotels in Torquay and concentrated on providing the holiday travel facilities which he knew would be in ever-increasing demand. In 1948 he added to the group half-a-dozen companies in the Scarborough arca, as many again in Torquay and 12 in Leeds and Bradford.

But a year later he lost the haulage business under nationalization and this was a bitter blow to him. Undaunted, he redoubled his efforts on the coaching side to restore an unbalanced economy. He ordered a special Leyland-Duple luxury coach and took it to the British Motor Show in New York. His contacts there, and on a 25,000-mile tour of the United States and Canada, resulted in an immediately enlarged business from Americans interested in a 40or 90-day tour of Europe.

Bold, shrewd and far-sighted in his business dealings, Bobby Barr has never lost the deep-rooted love of nature which gave rise to his commercial activities. During the war he found time to write "1 Travel the Road," which describes the beauties of Britain, and he has always enjoyed walking, fishing, and growing flowers. He interests himself in opera, music and children's holidays, and during the war was a member of Leeds City Council. He is a man who has done what he set out to do. He has weathered many a storm and retained an admirable judgment—and a host of friends. T.W.


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