Orkney Image Library

Again at Wideford, the farm being down the road to the right behind the car (see picture #16002).

Yes thanks again Magnus.
Looking close up to the car on the right there seems to be some kind o' writing on the side of it. You can see it using a magnifying glass on the original photo.

Where's the Health & Safety man? The props are turning and all these peedie boys just wandering aboot. Perhaps peedie boys were better behaved in those days! Ian Cameron, A peedie 1930 boy.

Safety is relative. My cousin Alexander Grant was the person trained and insured for swinging the prop. These engines did not have self starters and were started by hand, a slow turn to prime the cylinders, the the pilot would turn on the ignition, shout "Contact" and a hefty swing on the propellor would, hopefully, get it going. First the starboard, then the port. Sandy also had the job of driving the limo to ferry passengers to the airfield. That could be the one ON THE LEFT with the indecipherable writing.
This leads to the etymology of the word "Posh", derived from the practice of the "posh" people on their trans-atlantic crossings booking cabins on the Port side Out (PO)and Starboard side Home (SH), so as to be facing south both ways.
Sadly Sandy was killed in a motorcycle accident in January 1940.

Of obscure origin, but cf. POSH n.2 The suggestion that this word is derived from the initials of ‘port outward, starboard home’, referring to the more expensive side for accommodation on ships formerly travelling between England and India, is often put forward but lacks foundation. The main objections to this derivation are listed by G. Chowdharay-Best in Mariner's Mirror (1971) Jan. 91-2.]

I did hear that POSH was for ships going to India so that you got port side out and starboard back so you were facing north getting the coolest side of the ship. You pays your money and you takes your pick

Correction I ment LEFT not RIGHT. Any way any ideas what the writing was?