Coventry's history-making first female bus inspector who had bus route named after her

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Coventry's history-making first female bus inspector who had bus route named after her

Postby dutchman » Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:44 pm

Maurine Bailey rose through the ranks from bus conductress, to driver and finally inspector

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When Maurine Bailey first started her role on Coventry's buses, she had to buy a hat from the police force that would fit her because they didn't make sizes for women.

Maurine was a bit of a record holder in Coventry.

She was one of the first few women who became a bus conductor, one of the first three women to become a bus driver, and understood to be the city's first ever female bus inspector.

The move was so unusual, when Maurine qualified as a bus driver with her two female friends, it made regional news and was covered extensively in the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

"I don't think she ever realised she was a trailblazer, even though I knew she was" Maurine's son Roger told CoventryLive.

"She always just said 'I was a person doing a job', but she is a trailblazer, she saw it differently, she was so down to earth" he said.

Roger Bailey's parents Maurine Bailey and Jim Bailey moved to Coventry in 1956 from Kidderminster to work on the buses.

"My dad realised that there was a lot of opportunities in Coventry as they were short of bus crews in Coventry so he moved over, my mum followed over with me and they both got a job on the buses and they stayed working on the buses since" he said.

Coventry was a boom town and a place of real opportunity, and the Bailey family become a key part of the city's bus community.

"They both loved it, it's a community, the social side of things, they went out at night, they went out on holiday together, a whole group of them went to Butlins.

"It was a whole community of people from different backgrounds, it was a real interesting mix of people it was fascinating" Roger said.

At that time there were a lot of people from Ireland, Poland, Germany, and South Asian countries building the workforce.

Maurine started off as a bus conductress, and it was never expected that women would rise above that rank.

But there was a shortage of drivers, and Maurine along with two of her female colleagues were given the opportunity to train as drivers.

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It was a remarkable move, but Maurine never saw it like that, as Roger explained.

"She took to it like a duck to water, she couldn't wait to get back on the bus, she never saw it as a challenge, she couldn't wait to drive buses, she loved it.

"She used to be a bit of a shock and she would pull into a bus stop and people would wonder, there's a woman driving the bus, one time she was driving the bus and there was a man as a conductor and her as a driver and people couldn't work it out!"

And Roger explained how Maurine was always called in to deal with more sensitive issues: "If there was a problem on the bus or someone had an accident or something happened, they would say Maurine we could do with you, you're probably the best person to deal with it."

In order to become a bus inspector, you had to have worked as a bus driver.

So when Maurine became an inspector, she was the first woman ever in Coventry to do so.

And with this came some practical challenges: "It was so unique they didn't even the right hat for her, she had to buy a hat from the police force, there was no one else" Roger explained.

Maurine was a pioneer in many ways, but she never acknowledged it.

National Express Coventry named a bus after Maurine a couple of years ago, which now runs on route number 13.

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"That's why we're so proud of her because she did so much" Roger said.

Maurine retired aged 65 in 1986 after working for 30 years on the buses.

But retirement didn't mean Maurine slowed down in any way.

She travelled the world with husband Jim, saw two shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral in Florida, went on the Concorde, and toured the country as she traced the family tree.

Sadly Maurine passed away in January 2020, but if you spot the number 13 bus driving around Coventry, you now know the story behind it.

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