45 years on the buses for Garfield
 | | GARFIELD HARRIS - well-earned retirement |
ONE of London's longest-serving - and politest - drivers is bidding farewell to a life on the buses.
Garfield Harris, 65, was due to retire after 45 years driving London buses.
Mr Harris has been working from Holloway bus garage in Pemberton Gardens, Upper Holloway, for the past 40 years, most recently on the W7 route.
And staff at the Metroline depot call him "The Gentleman of the Garage" in honour of his well-mannered nature.
He was recruited by London Transport from his home in Barbados through a direct recruitment programme set up to ease the national labour shortage after the Second World War.
Mr Harris arrived in London aged just 20 in 1961. He has seen a number of changes over the decades, not least to the buses themselves.
He said: "In the beginning they were much harder to drive. There was no power steering and it was difficult. You had to push and pull the steering wheel very hard. You also had to really shift the gears, whereas now we just put it in automatic."
He also remembered how cold it was when he first arrived in England as no-one had warned the recruits about the change in climate.
Asked the reason for his long service, Mr Harris said: "I felt comfortable right from the beginning, and after you've stayed 10 years or so, you don't want to move!"
Metroline's chief operating officer, Sean O'Shea, said: "Forty five years service is a fantastic achievement and I would like to congratulate and thank him for his many years hard work."
Mr Harris plans to split his time between his homes in Tottenham and Barbados.
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