SAMUEL LEDGARD BUS STAFF MEMORIES

STICKS · Post by **STICKS** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 12:20 am

Hello Blakey just sent you an email get back in touch this is great .

peterg · Post by **peterg** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 11:19 am

Having been out of the country for so long, I am now having my doubts on the pronunciation of the name Ledgard. Should it be pronounced with a hard 'g' like in 'guard? or a soft 'g' like 'jar'? My memory is of a soft 'g'.

jim · Post by **jim** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 12:36 pm

That's my memory too, Peterg. Where is Blakey, the man most fitted to give chapter and verse?

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 1:22 pm

STICKS wrote: Hello Blakey just sent you an email get back in touch this is great . Hello Sticks - well, that is a VERY old badge number indeed (presumably not one of the very rare re-issues that the Commissioners did for a while). I very well have known your Dad at Headingley (1969 - 1986 myself). In my time at Ledgard's Otley though there were no part time drivers, only full time. If you like to confide identity off this Forum do by all means E Mail me on [email protected] and it will be interesting. Best Wishes.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 1:28 pm

peterg wrote: Having been out of the country for so long, I am now having my doubts on the pronunciation of the name Ledgard. Should it be pronounced with a hard 'g' like in 'guard? or a soft 'g' like 'jar'? My memory is of a soft 'g'. Now then Peter and Jim - this is one of those fascinating questions to which there is no definitive answer. As a general rule it would be pronounced LedGard by those who didn't know the Firm all that well, and by those who were more familiar as Ledgard with a soft "g". Then there was a third less formal "slang or sloppy" pronunciation as "LeGGards" with a hard "g" and no "d".Perhaps the safest "esperanto" name is "SAMMY'S."

jim · Post by **jim** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 2:09 pm

I would have said that that WAS a definitive answer Blakey!

STICKS · Post by **STICKS** » Sat 18 Sep, 2010 8:39 pm

Hello Blakey my dad must have been full time then, has you say there were no part time drivers ,i have sent you an Email to your computer let me know when you get it looking forwards to hearing from you ,i have given my dads badge to my son, if you contact me i have the original photo of my grandad with his conductor outside the corn exchange it must be late 1800s best wishes to you Blakey STICKS

alanlad · Post by **alanlad** » Sun 19 Sep, 2010 1:14 pm

I was in hospital in Cornwall Road, Harrogate in 1961 with a Mr. Ledgard of Legdards buses. Would that have been Sammy or one of his sons? The gentleman would have been in his fities or even sixties. The hospital was for arthritis sufferers and I remember him having a bar type stool made for him, as he couldn't bend his knees to sit on a normal chair.

jim · Post by **jim** » Sun 19 Sep, 2010 1:45 pm

Sammy himself died in the early 1950s, so it would have been a descendant. Blakey will doubtless be able to provide chapter and verse.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 19 Sep, 2010 6:18 pm

alanlad wrote: I was in hospital in Cornwall Road, Harrogate in 1961 with a Mr. Ledgard of Legdards buses. Would that have been Sammy or one of his sons? The gentleman would have been in his fities or even sixties. The hospital was for arthritis sufferers and I remember him having a bar type stool made for him, as he couldn't bend his knees to sit on a normal chair. That would almost certainly have been Tom Ledgard, Sammy's son, who was in charge of the business after his Dad died in April 1952.Tom had been badly injured in an accident (motorbike I think) as a young man and could scarcely walk eventually. He used to be chauffeured around the Firm's various premises in the Company Wolseley Saloon by Senior coach driver George Parkes - immaculate at all times - who transferred to West Yorkshire when ill health and looming State control in one form or another caused Tom Ledgard and the family to reluctantly call it a day. The saddest day in my career on the buses was Saturday October 14th 1967 !! One of my prized archive possessions is a lovely letter from Mr. Tom after I wrote to him to say what a pleasure it had been to work for the Firm - he obviously genuinely appreciated my comments.