Title: Devon General As It Was
Author: Nigel BruceRobertson
Publisher: Adam Gordon
ISBN: 978-1-910654-10-1
Specification: 245mm x 170mm, 124pp, softback
Price: £15 (£16.50 from publisher at Kintradwell Farmhouse, Brora, Sutherland, KW9 6LU)
Nigel Bruce-Robertson fulfilled a childhood ambition when he joined Devon General from school in October 1963 as a traffic apprentice and stayed for six years before moving on to a Eastern National.
The seeds of this ambition were sown on school holiday visits to his grandparents in Milber, Newton Abbot where he became acquainted with the AECs and Leylands operated on route 12 to Paignton, which thrives today in Stagecoach ownership.
This book, well illustrated with black and white and colour photographs, is his account of those years, learning about the workings of a BET company through stints at various departments and locations and coming away from his first week with a net pay of £4 16s 4d (£4.82). One year ahead of him on the training programme was Peter Shipp, who today chairs and owns East Yorkshire Motor Services.
In the parcels office at Newton Abbot, he learnt that many of the packages contained spare parts from motor traders and medical supplies from Boots, th…
