Honourable Mentions

The Bus That Flew: Albert Gunter's London Bus Leap

• Steve and Neil Webb • Season 1 • Episode 10

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30th of December 1952, on a cold and dark night in a London still scarred by World War II, Albert Gunter was driving his number 78 bus on the usual route over Tower Bridge when the unthinkable happened. 

Faced with a split-second decision, Albert hit the accelerator and saved the life of everyone on board, taking his bus soaring to the skies and into London urban legend. 

A London Transport New Year's tale of quick thinking, bravery, the grand old River Thames, some stupendous acting chops, and the modest little war hero at the centre of it all. 

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SPEAKER_02:

Hello. Happy New Year to you. Happy New Year to you to you. All right. And welcome to the special 10th anniversary edition of On New Realable Montons. Your one job. Welcome to the 10th anniversary edition of On New Yearable Monsons.

SPEAKER_04:

Mentions. On New Yearable Nonsense. Honorable mentions. There you go. We got there in the end. I was gonna put New Year into it, make it more seasonal.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, because it is New Year's Eve. You may have noticed, listener. Happy New Year to you and seasonal greetings. I tell you what, I hope you had the best of Christmases and our wishes for you came true. Wouldn't you say Neil?

SPEAKER_04:

I would say that, yes, and I hope your Brussels sprout farts have all cleared up now as well.

SPEAKER_02:

And I hope you had the fluffiest of Christmases, which is what Neil wished you in the last episode. And if you didn't hear that last episode, perhaps you'd like to go back and learn all about how one of our favouritist carols came to be.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. And then you could see how much fluffiness I bestowed on everybody.

SPEAKER_02:

You can, because it was plenty.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And the listener, you may be thinking, tenth anniversary? What the chuffin' hell they talking about? Because they haven't been going that long. Well, it's the tenth episode.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Not the ninth, it's the tenth. Or the eleventh. Or the eleventh.

SPEAKER_02:

It's the tenth episode, and it's the New Year's Eve, New Year episode. It's like we plan these things.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And and Neil. Hello, Neil. Hello, Steve. If it was on Sesame Street, it'd be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Eleven, twelve Yeah, but we're not we're on ten, aren't we? No, so that's what I mean. So I stayed on ten.

SPEAKER_02:

Today's number is ten. There you go. We can do Sesame Street. Now then, because it is our tenth anniversary and because it's New Year's Eve and all that, I thought I'd reflect back on the year and start with an actual letter from someone called C. Sandicist of Northampton Town Tourist Board.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

C writes If you continue to defame the town, we will be forced to take action. Lost me there. Don't know what that's supposed to mean.

SPEAKER_04:

No idea.

SPEAKER_02:

Happy New Year to you as well, C.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well done, C. Congratulations. Take your bulletproof best off for five minutes.

SPEAKER_02:

If you are listening, C, we do have a loyal listener. But I wouldn't like to say that we're really defame yet, are we, Neil?

SPEAKER_04:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

No red carpets and stuff, maybe in a year or two. But thank you. If will you want us to come and defame the town, then yeah, we'll we'll turn up to Northampton and stab vests and turn on your Christmas nights, whatever you want us to do.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, whatever you want us to do, really.

SPEAKER_02:

Anyway, on with the show. The show must go on. I'll open with this, Neil, to give you a clue as to what we're talking about today. Not that, no. Sorry, yeah, they weren't supposed to see that. This is to paraphrase a classic alt rock group, I will say Dracula comes from Transylvania.

SPEAKER_04:

Stevie Nicks talks about Kleptomania.

SPEAKER_02:

Johnny looked out of his bedroom window and shouted to his mum Fred Titmus. Oh close. Albert Gunter.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh.

SPEAKER_02:

I said I was paraphrasing rather than quoting.

SPEAKER_04:

No idea what that means, but it could crack on.

SPEAKER_02:

You're referring to half man, half biscuit, of course.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Classic alt rock group. But who is Albert Gunter, Neil?

SPEAKER_04:

I have no idea, Stephen.

SPEAKER_02:

Albert Gunter was born on the twenty eighth of February, nineteen oh six in Shawditch in London.

SPEAKER_04:

I know that.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, Shawditch nowadays, for the listener, is quite a gentrified part of London, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

It's quite trendy.

SPEAKER_02:

There's lots of people with man buns on the back of their heads cycling around with carefully groomed beards and things. But back in 1906 it wasn't. It was gentrified this this century, wasn't it, in the 21st century? Albert was one of eleven children born to Robert Henry Gunter and Priscilla Elizabeth Casbard. Or Casbard, whatever you want to say that.

SPEAKER_04:

He rocked her a few times.

SPEAKER_02:

Eleven children.

SPEAKER_04:

It was eleven children, it didn't really rock the Casbard.

SPEAKER_02:

I see where you come from there.

SPEAKER_04:

See what I did?

SPEAKER_02:

I did see what you did there, yes. So we started off half man, half biscuit, and we're already moving on to the clash. This is a rock and roll tour for our tenth anniversary episode. Of course it is. This family, the Gunter family, squeezed into 93 Shaftsbury Street near Angel.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

This is not Shaftsbury Avenue, but Shaftsbury Street. So imagine all that family squeezed into there. The house was a mid-terrace, two story, with a couple of bedrooms upstairs, and downstairs was the parlour, the back room, and a small kitchen. The toilet was a little wooden shed at the back of the yard. Nice. After you, Christmas Day, you'd demolished a little shed, a little wooden shed anyway.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

A bit like that scene in that bloke in Jurassic Park when it gets chased by the T Rex and sits in the toilet like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Apart from they didn't really have T Rexes roaming around. After your Brussels sprouts aftermath, I should imagine they were, yes. Yes. Two steps led from the street to the front door of the house, this is we moved on from the wooden outhouse. Two steps led from the street to the front door in an arched brickwork frame. An iron railing separated the pavement from their basement window. A modest and typical London house for families of limited income, and the Gunters were known to supplement their income by taking in lodgers to help pay the bills. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. A bit crammed already, wasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

You're gonna have to lay on top of Mrs. Gunter.

SPEAKER_02:

Mrs. Gunter probably acted as a sofa or something.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. That's perhaps where all the kids came from.

SPEAKER_02:

Tragically, in such cramped conditions, illness ran rife, and of all the children, only three girls, along with their brother Albert, would survive beyond childhood. So there you go now, once again, you've been flippant, flippant with your humour, and it was a tragedy underlying. So there's Marie, Emily and Florence, and Albert were the only four surviving children. As a young man, two people played a major role in liberating Albert from the family home. The first was the love of his life, a lady called Emily Atkins, who became his wife in March nineteen thirty.

SPEAKER_04:

Ah, so he was twenty-four.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you think when they were there getting married, they ever thought to themselves one day, our wedding, this special day of days for us, will feature on the tenth anniversary podcast of a showbiz extravaganza hosted by probably two best looking men on the planet in the year 2025, moving into 2026, for it will be New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_04:

I I honestly don't think it they would have would have known about getting to these sort of heights, Steve. It would have been way beyond their beliefs.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, probably. We're we're m we're men of the peoples. We've bestowed the recognition upon them, haven't we?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, there he was. He was liberated from his family home by Emily Atkins, who took him to her bosom and made him her husband. The other person who liberated Albert was a Mr. A. Hitler of Berlin. Who didn't marry him but managed to get him out of the not just his home, but also London. And not just his home and also London, but the country. Well.

SPEAKER_04:

Must have been a hell of a fella.

SPEAKER_02:

Albert was a hell of a fella. I wouldn't go as far as I'd had off. Hitler was hell of a fella, Neil. That can be deemed a bit controversial.

SPEAKER_04:

No, he's not. He was a nasty man.

SPEAKER_02:

He was a naughty man, wasn't he? And that's why Albert went over onto the continent. He trained for the Royal Tank Regiment and learnt how to drive a tank and became one of the boys who made Hitler think again. I can't see why no one said to Hitler.

SPEAKER_04:

Come on, man, that mustache is ridiculous. How do you play that?

SPEAKER_02:

Do you know why Hitler had that mustache?

SPEAKER_04:

No. Because you can't be asked to save that bit.

SPEAKER_02:

No, this is a serious, this is true. He was a very big fan of Charlie Chaplin. That's true. He used to have Charlie Chaplin films and things. He used to have played in his uh I forget what it's called, helping the mountains there and in his little hideaways and stuff. Right.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's true. Why would he have that mustache? Because he wanted to look like him? Because he just thought he liked the look. Weirdo.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, yeah, I think weirdo is uh spot on there, Neil.

SPEAKER_04:

I like Burton Ernie from Sesame Street, but I've got no desires to try and look like one of them.

SPEAKER_02:

That's unfortunate. Anyway, Albert, here he was, he was a tank driver, he was over there giving Mr. Hitler cause to think again, and a good old taste of British spunk.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, some of my spunk, you boys.

SPEAKER_02:

Some of that, you Nazis.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So once Albert had finished sticking up the Nazis, he and his British fighting spunk came home.

SPEAKER_04:

Good old boys. Good old boys. Sprayed the spunk all over the Germans and come back.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what they did. Yeah. Fritz tasted my British fighting spunk and some of this.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

And then slapped them around a bit and then we came home.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So off he came, right? Albert was on his way back to Blighty in his tank, parked it outside, straight into the house, and Alan Gunter was born in September 1945.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, so he managed to save some then.

SPEAKER_02:

He didn't think about, did he?

SPEAKER_04:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

Perfectly sandwiching the war with an elder sister, Edna, who was born in nineteen thirty-nine.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, so he before he went, and then when he got back.

SPEAKER_02:

Second he got back, the tank was still about he didn't even turn the ignition off. It was just on the lawn. Brace yourself, darling. Back in civilian life with a wife and two children to support, Albert found work driving the number 78 bus for London transport.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh that's a very popular bus, that one.

SPEAKER_02:

The municipal bus. Bright red, I should imagine.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I've written books on London buses. That's quite a popular one.

SPEAKER_02:

Have you?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And what's this book called, please?

SPEAKER_04:

It's called The Red London Bus.

SPEAKER_02:

Good name.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

What do the wheels do on this bus?

SPEAKER_04:

There's nothing to do with that. It's just it'll just list all the different buses.

SPEAKER_02:

Mm. So you start with number Number seventy-eight. That's the one you start with?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Cool. And where does that go from, please?

SPEAKER_04:

That goes from Shoreditch in London to uh Angel.

SPEAKER_02:

You're close, actually.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I know. Told ya.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll discover that later on. So did you feature Albert Gunter in your book on the number seventy-eight bus?

SPEAKER_04:

That's just about the buses, not about the drivers or anything.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Well Albert was a small fella.

SPEAKER_04:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02:

And like all 40-something things in 1952, he looked like he was about 78, but he'd been through a war.

SPEAKER_04:

Been seen a bit of action.

SPEAKER_02:

He got his the brill creamed hairdo. Yeah. George Formby style brool creamed hairdo. He always wore a shirt and tightly tied tie, and he had gaps between his crooked teeth today, Albert.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Okay. So he was a bit like George Formie then.

SPEAKER_02:

It could have been. He played the gearbox on his bus. That's what he did.

SPEAKER_04:

He got the air brakes.

SPEAKER_02:

Like a dream. But Albert, he may have had gaps between his crooked teeth, but he was always flashing those pearly whites, was Albert. Because he was one of life's smilers. A happy kind of bloke that bought a little sunshine into all that met him.

SPEAKER_04:

That's nice. Bright me sunshine. In your smile.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, you're leaving it there. I thought you were going into that then.

SPEAKER_04:

I'll let I'll let the listener just carry on with that in their own head. It's a very uplifting song, that one. It's a very nice song if you feel a bit ug.

SPEAKER_02:

If you feel a bit wolf. Yeah. How are you spelling that, please?

SPEAKER_04:

T H A T.

SPEAKER_02:

So Albert He and his good friend Alf the conductor became an important part of everyday life for countless Londoners eager to return to normality.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm sure they do.

SPEAKER_02:

However, Neil still there.

SPEAKER_04:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

Hello, Neil. However, normality had it in for Albert Gunter and his mate Elf.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Because on the thirtieth of December 1952 Albert's. I know, it's almost like it happened deliberately, and we've planned this.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Honestly, with more professional than anyone would ever believe. On the 30th of December, Neil, 1952, Albert's past and present lives would collide.

SPEAKER_04:

Ooh. Well it bumped at Dris Dad.

SPEAKER_02:

Shall I read more? Are you sitting comfortably? Yep. Then I shall begin. The number seventy-eight bus, a scarlet double decker, rumbled through the heart of the great city out from Peckham Rye, heading towards Shore Ditch. So you were nearly right, Neil. You got half of that, didn't you? Told you. You got the Shore Ditch. Probably you just couldn't remember the Peckham Rye bit.

SPEAKER_04:

That's part of the journey then.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Albert had been driving this route for six years now.

SPEAKER_04:

So he knew it off by that then.

SPEAKER_02:

In nineteen fifty-two. And so he started in nineteen forty-six. That's about quarter to eight, isn't it? And he had every twist and turn imprinted in his mind. There was nothing he hadn't seen before, or so he believed.

SPEAKER_04:

Dun dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_02:

Today was the thirtieth of December. We've said this late in the evening. It was dark, and the temperature had dipped below freezing. Condensation formed on the inside of the windows as Albert's twenty passengers count them. Watched droplets run down the glass that shielded them from London's icy cold blackness.

SPEAKER_04:

Ooh, good picture again.

SPEAKER_02:

I know I know.

SPEAKER_04:

It is. It was just some more crayons soon.

SPEAKER_02:

I will need some more crayons. Well, Santa Christmas did actually bring me some more crayons.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_02:

I've swallowed three of them and one of them's up my nose. So I'm bringing anything more. It was just two weeks on from the Great Smog, which was a four-day pea super. So thick that it forced the iconic red buses and black cabs from the London roads.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_04:

So thick it looked like Joey Essex looked intelligent.

SPEAKER_02:

But the occasional swish of his swipers, you try saying that, but with the occasional swish of his wipers, that evening Albert could see fine. Good. Good old Albert, so there he is, chugging along. And if you can imagine, we're talking 1952, middle of London. It's going to be bummed out still, isn't it? As well. There'll be lots of rubble and wrecked out. Yeah, it's not going to be a pleasant looking place.

SPEAKER_04:

No.

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

But there he was with his twenty passengers chugging along on his bus with the wheels going round and round. He approached Tower Bridge.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, know that place.

SPEAKER_02:

A grand Victorian masterpiece stretching across the Thames. I'd have said that for the listener, because the listener might be aware what Tower Bridge is or looks like.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Lots of people mistakenly called it London Bridge, but it's not, it's called Tower Bridge. It's the one that looks very grand and ornate, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04:

It's like a blue light blue colour and parts of it. Is it? Yeah. Oh on the on the railing, yeah. And the stanchions and the railings and stuff is light blue.

SPEAKER_02:

The two towers are sort of like stone is talled.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_02:

There you go, should have that's enough of our London tourist board audition. So there's Albert with Alf there, right? They're chugging along, they're approaching Tower Bridge. The traffic was light, which is good.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

A rare blessing. But it's the day's Eve. No, and it is New Year's Eve. It's not, it's the day before New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And it's night and everything. It's cold, it's very, very cold as well. It's important to remember it's very cold.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, Steve, thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Alfred Barton, the conductor, had his ticket machine hanging from a wrong ribbon around his neck and offered Albert a smoke as they chugged on to the famous landmark.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02:

So this is a nice picture, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We're painting here. Suddenly, almost imperceptible at first, there was a tremor that ran through the bus. Blimey, Albert muttered, and Alf didn't say a word. It was too late to go back. We can stop, Albert said. But they're bound to see us and stop the bridge.

SPEAKER_03:

And if they don't, said Alf. The bridge continued to rise.

SPEAKER_02:

So there they are, they've just entered onto the bridge and it's going upwards.

SPEAKER_04:

So the flaps were opening.

SPEAKER_02:

Albert thinks, well, if it'd stop someone's bound to see us and halt this, and Alf says, if they don't, then what? There was no need for an answer because both men knew that if the bridge kept rising, the number 78 would be plunged backwards into a very cold and watery grave.

SPEAKER_04:

So was he hanging on one of the one of the flaps?

SPEAKER_02:

No, what Albert was doing, he was a well, Albert was a maniac.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Because he proceeded onto that bridge at speed in the first place. He was doing twelve twelve miles an hour now. Oh no, what a fool. Twelve miles an hour, nineteen kilometres per hour, he was progressing at. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. This is like the film speed, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah. So he didn't stop and think to himself, oh, I'll let the boat go through then I'll carry on. He just thought just to keep drawing over the bloody things.

SPEAKER_02:

No, Neil, because I as I believe I have explained that they couldn't just stop. If they did stay where they were, he was on the flap. They'd have been tipped back.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, so he was already on the flap.

SPEAKER_02:

Into the water. He was already there. They were there.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh gotcha now, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So he decided to keep proceeding forwards at a steady twelve miles an hour like a maniac.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

He changed down a couple of gears.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And then slammed his foot hard onto the accelerator. So twelve mile an hour is not good enough for him anymore. He's got to do fifteen, didn't he?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, bloody idiot.

SPEAKER_02:

Back in the days before automation made things safe and boring, the watchman was positioned on London's Tower Bridge with the one job of ringing a warning bell and closing the gate for the two halves of the bridge swung upwards to allow tall ships passage along the Thames. For whatever reason that day, the watchman just didn't do his job properly.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_02:

As Albert approached from the south burning solid rubber at twelve miles an hour.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

He saw a green light for go, he heard no warning bell, and the gates were open wide. So what's he gonna do if Albert? He's gonna think, well that's all alright, I do this every day. That means I can proceed at my my reckless speed. Yes. It was as the number seventy eight bus approached halfway, Albert the Elf noticed that the road in front of them was falling away as the South Bascule that's what they called the South Bascule was rising just ahead of the north section. And now we're going to go to the words of one of the actual passengers. One of your actual passengers was actually on your actual bus.

SPEAKER_04:

What was it?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, that was the several of the passengers. Yeah. That's a direct quote.

SPEAKER_04:

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02:

Imagine they've been to the sales and things like that. So they'd been to TK Maxx and places and they'd got all their shopping in their bags.

SPEAKER_04:

Probably all out of Costa or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah probably all had a costable and now they're on their way home for their faggots which for our American listener are pork based cylindrical shaped gravy covered meat products not what you're thinking of our American listener with your filthy mind. So Peter Dunn now what I'm going to do here Neil is I'm gonna use my acting skills to convey to you Peter Dunn. So please don't don't worry and think I've gone anywhere. Put yourself in Peter Dunn You probably have done I will be becoming Peter Dunn do not get alarmed I haven't gone anywhere this is me so I'll just warm like there you go I'm warming myself through right you ready? We were progressing across Tarbridge I've made him a bit posh yeah we were progressing across tarbridge just before as we had gone over the first half of the section that goes up there there was a loud crashing sound and I was thrown to the floor don't you know? This is good. Do you like it? Shall I keep with a posh or shall I make him probably East End or whatever?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh East End the next bit. Um honourable mentions you slag something like that yeah yeah I don't know whether I can do East End.

SPEAKER_02:

What governor? The bus came to a halt and the driver then came round to invite us off to have a look at a butchers at the gap that had opened up on the opposite half. That's me that's a fenboy speaking in there isn't it? He told us that as he started to drive across the opening part of this bridge he realised that the side that the bus was on was going up. I'm gonna make Peter Dunposh again. I've no scouse shall I make him scout he said you can only think of two options as to what to do one was to stop the bus and hope that once someone realizes what was happening but that left the possibility of the bus slipping back and perhaps toppling into the river the other was to continue diving and to jump the gap. That wasn't a bad Liverpool It was alright. It was alright didn't say come Ed he didn't say that enough did he? Alright LaGla It's like Christmas song for these Navi Dad If someone says to you that's gonna be a scouser saying the please nab me dad You'd hear it every time you listen to the song now. The please nap me dad anyway I'll make him um what should we do this time for his final piece, old Peter Dunn we'll make him push again. He said he had been a tank driver during the war and that the tank would have no trouble getting onto the other side and decided to see if a double deck of bus could do the same so thanks to his quick thinking we were all delivered safe there safer safely So what happened there then to the listeners probably got lost now with all these accent changes and uh bowsing up of the story that they approached Tower Bridge it was all going there's a loud crashing sound passengers were thrown to the floor the bus came to a halt and then the bus driver came round to invite them all off to have a look at what's just happened and he told them that they had just jumped across the gap in the bridge. Presumably by this stage the the bridge had stopped rising. You'd think so you think so otherwise he invited everyone off got to put the umbrake on then they all get mowed down by the the bus. Imagine that you'd have to run pretty fast one need to get back on the bus and stop it again. So yeah old Albert can only think of two things to do one is to stop the bus and hope someone realises we've already said that and Alf told him not to do it. But that left the possibility of the bus sliding and toppling back into the river the other was to continue driving the bus at his unbelievable speeds and jump the gap and he said old Albert that he knew his tank could have done it during the war but he liked to see whether his double decker bus could do it as well because they're pretty similar aren't they a tank and a double decker bus. Yeah they'd be used in warfare I'm sure there's only the caterpillar tracks and then the arsenal and the the gun and things like that on the front of a tank any different to a double decker bus. Anyway doubty old number 78 made the daring leap but suffered a broken suspension for a gallantry inaction. Something would have come from it wouldn't it poor old number 78 Elf Barton cracked a heel bone and had to use crutches for some time. Ouch otherwise apart from being shaken no one else was seriously hurt there were some bruises and little you know cracked toes and things like that.

SPEAKER_04:

Some ego's gone maybe or some haircuts.

SPEAKER_02:

It would be quite um traumatic experience. There's no record of whether someone screamed Yeehaw and the the pawn went or anything like that. Or even whether they took off over some bales of hay. Yeah none of that was mentioned. However a young woman called Mae Walshaw who was flung along the floor to the front of the bus so she didn't just hit the floor she hit the floor and then was slipped forward all the way forward was so traumatized that she couldn't face climbing aboard any of London's famous red buses again until she received help from one of London's bus drivers who took her under his wing and helped her recover from her trauma Don't tell me it was Albert It was Albert Gunter.

SPEAKER_04:

What a man what a man I like Albert what a man he was he persuaded her back on board the very same number seventy eight bus and with him at the wheel the pair crossed Tower Bridge several times over back and forth on his route around May and Albert became such firm friends that when she became Mrs Macdonald in the September of the following year, so 1953, Albert and Emily were guests at her wedding That's the least she could do he was a guy wasn't he Albert So he saved those lives of those people and probably the bus and probably the cars or anything behind him because he didn't slide back and hit them or roll into the water he dived the bridge saved everyone's life and he also rectified this lady's anxiety issues.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah I don't know whether he dived to the bridge I think he might have jumped it but yes and this had nothing to do of course with all of his heroics covering the Nazi people in his good old British During the war during the war do you know what Neil? What would you what would you if you'd have done this, if you'd it'd have been you instead of Albert Yeah what would you expect from your employer? New bus Well yes the bus did get new suspension didn't get a new bus but he got it fixed.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Albert got a whole day off to get over it and ten pounds.

SPEAKER_04:

That's a lot innit he did well then didn't he?

SPEAKER_02:

He was a lucky boy wasn't he?

SPEAKER_04:

He was a lucky boy he's just thankfully still got his job.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah you're probably wrecking a bus like that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah if they'd have had tacos and things then and they'd have found out of the Mexican food back then did they in in London?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't think they did. That's a good point Neil Yeah is taco Mexican food taco short for taco graph?

SPEAKER_04:

I think it is isn't it it is tastes the same.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah Albert received ten pounds which is£250 today and a whole day to get over it. But as you said they didn't have to give him that and if they had a read his taco graph and found out he was doing twelve miles an hour skidding round corners like that.

SPEAKER_04:

Hmm they would probably have thought twice about it.

SPEAKER_02:

They'd probably thought twice about it giving him anything at all.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But still it's not Albert's fault he was a top fella. Then there's no record of what happened to the bloke who should have been keeping watch on the bridge itself probably probably made him prime minister or something. Yeah probably yeah because is that observant of the things going on in the world later so we're jumping forward in time now which is what we mean by the word later it means not now but in the future later Albert received a£35 reward from the City of London which is about eight hundred and fifty of your pounds today. Nice that's all right plus calm down because this gets even better plus a family holiday of a week in Bournemouth. Wow you're talking and so bear it in mind London Transport Employer of the year gave him a day off and 10 quid yeah then the City of London gave him 35 850 quid£35 yeah plus a family holiday plus Enid and Alan if you remember were his children attended the Lord Mayor's children's party like they were driving the bus or they were on the bus or something.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah exactly yeah why is the Lord Mayor having party for children?

SPEAKER_02:

They had nothing to do with it did they so but anyway there they were they were loving lapping it all up there in the life of luchery when Albert was presented with his ten pounds and his day off and managing to keep a straight face and not screen for how much what anyway yes while he was doing that at a special ceremony yes they had the front to do it as a special ceremony in front of the press and everything the assemble press here we are press this is the man who saved our bus twenty people didn't drown in the Thames in an afic accident and here's ten quid mate and take the time off tomorrow put me back at work even earlier the following day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah the press asked Albert what he was going to do with the money congratulations to for 46 year old London bus driver Albert Gunter who when faced with a widening gap while crossing Tabah Bridge jumped his bus to safety at London Transport Headquarters he received a£10 reward for averting a serious disaster and when I met it he said five for me and five for the missus five for me and five for the missus gunter his five pounds he went and bought a brand new overcoat.

SPEAKER_04:

Perhaps you need one not criticising the purchase of an overcoat but I just thought you'd like to know what he did with his five pounds not particularly bothered but it's nice to know that he bought something with it that'll last a bit longer so I would have thought he'd got a big one of them big trench coats with the collars that turned up classical nineteen fifties go with go with a trill bear the trilby hat trilby hat I was thinking more of a slim squat your big puffer jackets that you wear with a baseball cat and a bouncy walk and your your airmac.

SPEAKER_02:

For everyone blood yeah or or bro Albert died in nineteen sixty eight Neil Oh I'm sorry to break it to you like that. Yeah it's a little bit softer next time please that's what she said he was sixty one years old and he died in Islington sixty one it's no age is it is very proud Londoner died in London and is a legend of London to the very end and a legend of Honourable mentions because Albert was the man who jumped Tower Bridge in a double decker red number seventy eight bus.

SPEAKER_04:

They should name a bus after him or something shouldn't they?

SPEAKER_02:

They may have done but they ought to do something aren't they Albert Gunter probably even put a platinar to the bridge.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah Albert landed here or something yeah this is the spot where Albert's I bet if you ask a Londoner now they wouldn't have even heard of him.

SPEAKER_02:

They wouldn't have even heard of Albert Gunter?

SPEAKER_04:

No that does that's not right.

SPEAKER_02:

We ought to go out and do a on the road version of honourable mentions.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm going to stand for a placard in Trafalgar Square sooner have you ever heard of Albert Gunther?

SPEAKER_02:

The first person we ask will probably be his granddaughter or something then we'll look stupid. Yeah but yes Albert Gunter or Albe Guntz as he is known tank driver spunk distributor during the war during the war yeah defeater of Albert Hitler Albert Hitler that was his brother Albert I know he had he had uh twin brothers Alf Adolf and Albert went over there he beat both of them he beat Albert and Adolf with his nerf gun yes spud gun he he had a nerf gun full of orange juice that he squirted them with near a wasp's nest nice and that's sorted that's the way to go that's sorted in it Albert Gunter all round hero and that is the tenth anniversary edition of Honourable Mentions and the New Year's Eve edition of On New Year Bull Mentions And we'll be back in the new year for a brand new episode of Honorable Mentions you slag thank you for joining us listener do enjoy your New Year's celebrations but above all be safe yes be safe be seen be sensible see it say it sort it and we will be back next time until then happy new year and bye Cheer Cheer I see oh Peter Dunn's back is this thing on can they hear me?

SPEAKER_00:

Use two on okay you only have one listening massive I've got better things to be doing in this file craft you do I get to do it.