THESE smartly-dressed ladies and gentlemen were on their way to London.

Dressed in all their finery, they climbed aboard the charabanc and headed for the capital.

We know their destination was Wembley and the purpose of the trip was to attend the 1924 British Empire Exhibition, because those details are printed below the picture. But we don’t know the names of any of the participants or what organisations they were representing.

A possible clue is that the picture was found during a clearout of the Witney offices of our sister paper, the Witney Gazette.

Were they the town’s business leaders at the time?

Another clue to it being a local group is that the word ‘Oxford’ can be seen on the open door, suggesting the charabanc had been hired from City of Oxford Motor Services, now the Oxford Bus Company.

The exhibition was opened by King George V on St George’s Day, April 23, 1924.

The British Empire consisted of 58 countries at that time, and only Gambia and Gibraltar did not take part.

It cost £12m and was the largest exhibition to be staged anywhere in the world – it attracted 27m visitors.

The aim was “to stimulate trade, strengthen bonds that bind mother country to her sister states and daughters, to bring into closer contact the one with each other, to enable all who owe allegiance to the British flag to meet on common ground and learn to know each other”.

A special railway loop line and station were built, to connect the site to London’s Marylebone station.

Most of the exhibition halls were intended to be temporary and demolished afterwards, but some were kept, mainly because of the high cost of demolishing such huge concrete structures.

They included the Empire Pool, which became the Wembley arena, and the Empire Stadium, which became Wembley Stadium, the home of English football.

It was the first occasion that the Post Office issued commemorative postage stamps. Two stamps, a penny and a penny-halfpenny, were issued on April 23, 1924, inscribed ‘British Empire Exhibition 1924’.

Do you recognise anyone in the picture above? Write and let me know.