The Fernhurst Society
Tales from the Archives - 30
Fernhurst mechanics salvage London bus
George Ranking, Vicar of Fernhurst, asked Fernhurst men serving during the Great War to send some of their stories for a Special War Number of the Parish Magazine in 1916. Here’s one, sent in by Cpl S Burrows, 93 MT Coy ASC, 1st Mobile Repair Unit, BEF, France.
‘One of the most difficult salvage jobs we did was a London Bus used for carrying troops. For some reason it had left the road and fallen into a canal on its side, all that could be seen was just one wheel, the rest was under water. The bank of the canal was about ten feet above the water, so you may imagine it was ‘some job’. We had the help of a diver attached to the ‘Inland Water Transport’ branch of the Royal Engineers. He was very useful as he could fasten wire cables or chains in any position to the chassis of the bus in spite of it being at the bottom of the canal. This job took about three hours to do, with two salvage lorries and 16 men. There were some large trees close by to which we fastened our triple pulley blocks.
After getting the bus back on the road, strange to say, none of the mechanism was damaged but of course the body was knocked about a bit. One of the soldiers on board at the time was drowned.’
If you would like to know more about this story, or research other local topics, the Archive is open on Tuesdays, 2.30-5pm in the Village Hall. Other times by arrangement.
Christine Maynard
Fernhurst ArchiveOne of a series of short articles bringing you some of the incidents from our rich village history. Collated by Christine Maynard, based on documents preserved at the Fernhurst Archives, these originally were published in the monthly Fernhurst News.
The Fernhurst Archives
Fernhurst History
