Albert Aldiss (Born 1903) - Stories of Albert and his Bus

These stories have been gathered from the interviewees or from letters to Bawdsey Radar Group. Some of the stories have been told by more than one person.

The Overloaded Bus

From the early 30s Albert Aldiss ran bus service from Felixstowe Ferry to Felixstowe town. On Saturday the RAF boys for cinema or dance - all wanted to return home at 10:30 to 11 pm. Albert's bus was not more than a 29 seater. So they sat down in the aisle and the bus was well overloaded on its last trip back. Police stopped him from time to time. The Felixstowe Times (on Friday) would report who had been fined etc.

Albert would be fined ?2 for overloading his bus. A lady who lived on the route to town used to go shopping in Felixstowe and Albert always picked her up (he would wait if she wasn't there). If she had seen his fine noted in the paper, she paid her fare and gave him a brown envelope containing the money to pay his fine.

A Gentleman?s Arrangement

When he was low on fuel he stopped at a garage on Hamilton Road where he would fill up, go into the office and empty his leather money bag onto the desk and then carry on. At the end of the year, the garage would submit an account - we put so much fuel in - your payments were so much and the balance is due - one way or the other this showed implicit trust

The "Elastic Bus"

When Albert arrived at the Bawdsey ferry with a load of airmen and airwomen returning to camp, he would count them as they debarked to make sure that everyone had got off. But sometimes a prankster would open the emergency exit door at the rear, then as they filed off past Albert at the front of the bus, they'd crouch down low so he couldn't see them as they scooted back to the rear and re-boarded via the exit-door to be counted a second time, leaving him to wonder what was going on when his count went way past the number he'd counted getting on.
 

In his newer bus (in the 60s?), Albert had a poster displayed, announcing "CAR-FREE, CAREFREE TRAVEL BY BUS".