| George Shillibeer
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![[George Shillibeer]](https://dev.freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/images/shillibeer_g.jpg) |
1797- August 21, 1866 A coachmaker in Bloomsbury, George Shillibeer built the first two omnibuses in England. He introduced the omnibus in London on July 4, 1829, carrying 22 passangers. Railways, litigation and competition forced him out of the transportation business into undertaking, where he invented an undertaker’s vehicle which combined a hearse and mourning coach. He obtained, in perpetuity, some 50 acres of land in Hainault Forest for the inhabitants of Lambourne and Chigwell in Essex, as a recreation ground. Initiated: February 25, 1827 Etonian Lodge, Windsor Affiliated: 1829 Globe Lodge No. 23, London
Source: Henry Sadler, Some Memorials if the Globe Lodge, No. 23… London : Warrington & Co. 1904. |