Location and date of photo (Cologne)

Hello John

The 'Autobus' on the side of the vehicle and the name Franz Sauer on the premises behind suggests somewhere like Salzburg where there is a Franz-Sauer-Straße.

Mike

There is a still a "Franz Sauer" store in Cologne (Koln) with a Web-Site
NB I am rubbish at military uniforms, but the jauntily sat chap you ask after looks to have a "Light Infantry" badge on his cap, without more detail it may be difficult for anyone to be more precise that that.

Other things to consider are:-

• Is the charabanc right-hand drive, because wouldn't the boys in the front be where the steering wheel would be on a LHD vehicle?
• The small image of the shop-front on their Web-Site doesn’t preclude it being the same place modernised, so it might be worth you email them a copy of the photo for their comments.
• The ladies dark hats at the right-hand end look more like a 30/40's style, if photos of my Mum were anything to go by.

Happy Hunting

Graham

Thank you Mike and Graham for your comments. The reference to Cologne does have some significance. A few weeks ago I posted another photo which was annotated "on the Dom steps, 1922". Someone suggested Dom was German for cathedral, and the background building looked like it could be Cologne cathedral. These two photos are from the same source and could well be linked.

There is a story in the family that my grandmother accompanied her sister and husband (married, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury, 1915) to Germany after the war because they had a child who was sickly, and Gran was a trained nurse. The husband was in the army, I'm told something to do with army pay (pay corp?). His father was in the KSLI and died in South Africa during the Boer war.  Hence my interest in the army uniform and the possibility of identifying a regiment.

I have sent a copy of this photo to the contact address on the Franz Sauer web site mentioned, but have not yet had a reply.

John, looking a the photo of the soldiers cap badge it looks like a Light Infantry badge -- Shropshire, Hereford or Durham, can't be certain as photo not to clear at high magnification but most likely Kings Shropshire Light Infantry with the info you have already posted

Is it possible to get a much higher resolution scan of the uniform, particularly the cap badge?

Mike

Hi John and Mike

I don't think I can do any better with the photo at the moment. If I do I will re-post a blow up of the man in unifirm.

John

I wrote to a contact address on the Franz Sauer web site and have just received this response:

Dear Mr. Williams,

we thank you for your mail of January 28^th, 2013 and specially for the amazing photo.

Sorry to be late in answering your question, but we really didn’t know where this picture would have been taken.

Franz Sauer never had a store in London. This is for sure.

Just a few days ago we saw by chance in a very new book about Cologne before the war pictures which have never been published before. On one page we found three pictures of nearly similar busses who made city tours in Cologne and these pictures have been made in 1925. This was a time where the British army still occupied the area of Nordrhein Westfalen before they left in January 1926.

So we are quite sure that your photo was taken in Cologne in front of one of our stores, probably in Hohe Straße 162 – 168. The letters of Franz Sauer are exactly the same as used by our company before the war and at that time. The British soldiers on the picture may have been the drivers of the autobus. If you have a closer look to the ladies and the children in the bus you will recognize very German faces.

If you will let us have your address we’ll send you a copy of the pictures shown in this mentioned book. On the other hand we would very much appreciate to receive a good copy of the picture which used to be in your hand.

We hope to hear from you and send you kind regards from Cologne

I have produced a higher res photo of the man in uniform,

This is a direct link to this photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45581258@N07/8481244847/sizes/k/in/photostream/

Thanks for the new scan. I've been asking about this, and the consensus seems to be that it's definitely Light Infantry, and most likely either KSLI (Shropshire) or Ox & Bucks. 

I attach a link showing the cap badges, which should show you why those two are the favourites.

Mike

http://www.britisharmedforces.org/pages/nat_li_inf_reg_badges.htm 

Mike

Thanks for your research on the cap badge. This throws up an interesting conundrum. I believe the man in uniform is Valentine Scouse. He was not only my grandmother's cousin (father's sister's son), he also married my granmother's sister (Meole Brace church, 1915), and my grandmother married his brother. You might need a bit of paper to work that one out. Valentine married in uniform but I don't know which regiment he was in. What is interesting is that his father, Hedley Scouse, was a colour sergeant in the KSLI, and died in South Africa. Hedley was born and brought up in, guess where, Buckinghamshire. How he came to be in KSLI is a mystery, and what regiment his son was in is also a mystery. 

As an added point of interest, I sent the negative of my photo to Franz Sauer in Cologne, and the Post Office have lost it.

I have been researching a William Patrick MOFFATT, born Birkenhead, Cheshire, who transferred into the Shropshire Light Infantry in 1922 when his previous regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, was disbanded (Irish). His son Desmond J. Moffatt was born in Cologne 7 Oct 1925.  I suspect that the women and children on the bus are the wives and children of members of the regiment.