SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

The 'Times Past' feature on page 16 of the Yorkshire Evening Post of June 1 2013 has an interesting tram related report in which Albany Duncan recalls "fond memories of driving trams all over Leeds" with particular recollections of tram accidents and near misses. This is the link to the online report that I have now found:- http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... -1-5725747    

Good old YEP - "more than a few stories to tell of his time behind the wheel". We all know how skillfully tram drivers used to steer their vehicles! A fair number of cyclists would have loved to learn the art when riding too close to tram tracks.    

Mr Duncan's war-time military service raises some interesting mathematical questions: if he's genuinely 81 as reported, then the earliest he can have been born would be June 1931 (assuming that his 82nd birthday will be in 2013).Even taking the end of the war as being in August 1945, when Japan surrendered, rather than May of that year when Germany surrendered, Mr Duncan could not have been more than 14 years and three months old. No wonder he describes it as being "toward the back of the war,"!

Fair point Bruno but then he could have lied about his age and taken the King's Shilling (Half Crown?)aged 7. [Edit]After all we've said about YEP here repaying by generating sl posts from their press.

Albany R Duncan birth registered between Oct and Dec 1931 in Leeds North

uncle mick wrote: Albany R Duncan birth registered between Oct and Dec 1931 in Leeds North >>served with the RAF Regiment during the war and has more than a few stories to tell about that too.“It was toward the back of the war, I did dozens of jumps, our job was to guard airfields. There was one jump when we came down in a pine forest and my shoe got caught on a tree. My mate went past me laughing as he headed toward a big green patch he thought was grass. He didn’t know it was a stagnant pond. Then I was laughing.“Another jump and a pal of mine went past me and he’d ‘candled’ - his chute had failed. He was lucky, he landed on top of another chute and they both lived, although they each broke a leg and one his arm too.”<<

Albany or Al as I have know him for the last 30 years is the father to a friend of mine, and was certainly a Tram Driver in Leeds, followed by Buses, seen photos of him driving trams.As usual YEP has got some of its facts wrong, he was in a parachute Regiment doing his National Service after the War, but went to one of the other conflict wars after the Second World War.

Late 40's early 50s thee RAf Reg were in Iraq, Aden and Malaya among other places. Don't think they got to Korea.    

headingleylad wrote: As usual YEP has got some of its facts wrong, he was in a parachute Regiment doing his National Service after the War, but went to one of the other conflict wars after the Second World War. Fair enough. I didn't mean to imply any disrespect to the gentleman himself.

Cardiarms wrote: Late 40's early 50s thee RAf Reg were in Iraq, Aden and Malaya among other places. Don't think they got to Korea.     There was a British military presence in Korea and this http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea ... s.html#raf says that RAF pilots flew with the USAF.