Devon General

The Devon General Omnibus and Touring Company started operations in south Devon in 1919 with two bus routes from Exeter to Torquay. In 1922 Torquay Tramways bought the company for £36,000, although it was operated as a subsidiary of the National Electric Construction Company (NECC) and the motor buses already owned by the tramway company were transferred to Devon General. Some charabanc tours had been operated by the Torquay Tramways and this continued under Devon General. A local independent company that traded as Fleet Cars was purchased in 1925 but continued to operate as a separate business for a few seasons, during which time a number of other small operators were also acquired and merged with Fleet Cars.

In 1931 the NECC became a part of British Electric Traction (BET). The Torquay tram network was closed in January 1934. The Tramways company was sold to Devon General, the fleet of which was enlarged by 24 buses to allow it to operate the former tram routes.

Devon General had turned down the chance to buy local independent coach operator Grey Cars in 1930 so it had instead been purchased by A Timpson & Sons of Catford in 1931. Timpsons sold the business to Devon General in 1932 and the following year both Grey Cars and Fleet Cars, which had been operated as separate businesses, were merged into Devon General. Most coaches continued to operate under Grey Cars' name, although some small operators that were subsequently bought out by Devon General continued in their old names for a while.

National Bus Company

BET's bus operations, including Devon General, became part of the National Bus Company (NBC) when it was formed on 1 January 1969. Devon General had worked closely with the Corporation of Exeter's bus services since 1947. In April 1970 the corporation's buses and routes were transferred to the NBC and merged into Devon General. The city's unusual use of route letters (as opposed to numbers) continued.

In January 1971, the NBC transferred the bus operations of Devon General to neighbouring Western National but the Devon General name was retained as a brand, while the Grey Cars coaching operation was transferred to Exeter-based Greenslades. NBC split Western National into four new companies on 1 January 1983, one of which was Devon General Limited. This operated in south and east Devon as the old Devon General had done, but the Tiverton area became a part of a new North Devon operation.

Transit Holdings

On 19 August 1986, Devon General became the first NBC operating subsidiary to be privatised under the Transport Act 1985 by being sold in a management buyout led by managing director Harry Blundred.

An experimental high-frequency service using 22 minibuses had been introduced in Exeter on 27 February 1984. By the time the company was privatised in August 1986, the minibus fleet had expanded to more than 200 vehicles, more than half the buses in service. By the end of 1990 all regular services had been converted to minibus operation using a mixture of 16 and 24-seat vehicles.

The new owners of Devon General formed Transit Holdings to operate number of other bus companies, most of them in southern England:

Devon General quickly expanded beyond its original routes between Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay. A number of small operators were bought out (see below), but area agreements with larger neighbours set out the company's area of operation. While the boundaries changed in detail from time to time, the area was largely set out in two agreements.

In 1922 an eastern boundary was agreed with the National Omnibus and Transport Company along the road from Minehead via Tiverton, Cullompton and Honiton to Sidmouth.

In 1924 a northern boundary was agreed with Hardy Central Garage between Okehampton, Bampton and Wellington.

By 1929 the western boundary had settled at Kingswear, Totnes, Buckfastleigh and Okehampton, with Western National having control beyond.