49 years on the buses

Malcolm Wetherell, a driver based at First Eastern Counties’ Lowestoft depot, is celebrating after clocking up 49 years’ service. He joined the firm, then part of the nationalised Transport Holding Company, in August 1965 when he was 16 years old as an Apprentice Engineer at the Great Yarmouth depot. After completing a five year apprenticeship earning £7 a week, Malcolm was promoted to a Charge Hand Engineer. At 34 years old, Malcolm became the youngest Depot Mechanical Superintendent in the firm, before he became Depot Engineer for Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft five years later. In the late 1980s, Malcolm trained as a bus driver. Although he formally retired in April this year, Malcolm, still drives buses around the town two days a week and two of his former Engineering Apprentices still work at the firm’s Lowestoft depot.