The first-ever complete history of the Red and White bus company has been published – just in time for its 100th anniversary.

The company – which went on to become the largest independent bus firm in the country – was founded by John and Arthur Watts of Lydney in 1921.

The new book, written by Robert Edworthy, Chris Martin and Graham Vickery, chronicles the history of the company from its founding until 1953.

The book called Red and White, includes a foreword, written before his death by Melville Watts, John Watts’s nephew. In it, Mr Watts said: “This is in essence a book about the vision, enterprise and sheer hard work, initially of one man, my uncle, John Watts.”

What was to become Red and White began with the purchase of ex-army vehicles after the First World War.

Mr Watts writes: “Starting in 1921 with his first bus at Lydney under the name of Gloucestershire Transport, he soon appreciated the opportunities to serve the sizeable population of South Wales and Gloucestershire.

“With many family entrepreneurs doing the same thing, he rapidly came to the view that this fierce, often cut-throat competition could be the death knell of them all.

“His solution was co-operation and amalgamation in a friendly atmosphere and hence Red and White was born, continuing in this spirit as a leader of the bus and coach industry until its sale to the British Transport Commission in 1950 in anticipation of inevitable nationalisation,” he revealed.

Mr Edworthy, of Rogiet near Caldicot, said: “At its point of sale to the government in 1950, Red and White was the largest independent bus company in the country.

“So it’s extraordinarily surprising that among the huge number of books dedicated to companies large and small throughout England and Wales there has never been a volume wholly dedicated to its history and vehicles.

“The company was a big employer locally and it services covered Gloucestershire, South Wales and Bristol.

“It is a really fascinating story.”

Much of the information in the book came from the Omnibus Society’s collection of documents including newspapers, council minutes and transport journals.