Husband buys wife double-decker bus they met on 60 years ago

Not just any double decker bus either – it was one from the same fleet of buses they met on 60 years ago.

Ken Morgan, now 82, met Shirley in 1956, when he was a 22-year-old RAF airman and she was a blue-eyed, 18-year-old conductress, working the route between Gloucester and Cardiff.

He paid two shillings and sixpence to take the 60 mile journey on the old red and white bus and, when he got off at the other end, he asked Shirley for a date.

It clearly went well, because they married in 1959 and Ken even quit his job so he could join Shirley on the buses.

‘Working on the buses with Shirley really was some of the happiest times of my life,’ Ken said.

So, when he spotted one of the old red and white route one buses in a transport museum, it gave him an idea. He got in touch with a collector, who had saved one of the old buses from the scrap yard.

He bought the 1949 Guy Arab double-decker for £12,000.

‘I offered to help restore the bus,’ he explained. ‘It was the same fleet 1749 which we met [on] all those years before. It was a real labour of love.’

Now restored, thanks to both Ken and Shirley, the bus is housed at the heritage bus collection in The Bus Depot in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

Ken says seeing it brought back to its former glory took him and Shirley ‘back down memory lane to the days when we first met’.

They often travel from their home in Ashford to take trips along their old route in the double-decker.

‘We are a good team and it’s been so nice in our retirement years to play driver and conductor again. It reminds us of our courting days,’ said Ken.

‘We had such great times. I still adore Shirley as much as I did back then.’

Shirley, 78, added: ‘We both believe in destiny and meeting Ken on the bus that day in 1956 was just meant to be.

‘I still have my original conductress badge and wear it with as much pride as my wedding ring.’

source:metro.co.uk