By Margaret Crosby

Published at 15:40, Wednesday, 08 July 2009

OUR recent article about CMS bus conductress Margaret Philip brightened the day of reader Jean Buchanan who, from Margaret’s picture of her CMS driver dad, spotted her own dad, Fred Perry.

Both named now: Margaret's dad CMS driver Jack Glaister (on the right) and, left, his conductor Fred Perry

Jean, of Balmoral Road, Whitehaven, tells us her dad worked on the buses after being demobbed from the army in 1945, until his death in 1977. Fred’s sister, Peggy Perry was the very first conductress to be taken on by the company and stayed with CMS all her working life. And Fred’s step-father Harry Coulson, also worked as a conductor for a number of years.

Margaret Philip had a tremendous memory for all her colleagues and was particularly close to Vera Lofthouse, now Harrison, who used to live at Bransty but now lives at Carlisle. Vera was a bus conductress like Margaret and was bridesmaid at Margaret’s wedding and was her son’s godmother.

Everyone who worked “on the buses’’ is saddened by the abandonment of the former bus station at Bransty Row but recent moves to include the 1930s art deco building within new Conservation Area boundaries may yet save it from the demolition hammer.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk