Cambs granddad who worked as coach driver dies
William John Coles grew up in Cottenham.
Pictured above: William John Coles with wife Mary. (Credit: Warren Gunn).
A much-loved granddad who worked as a coach driver for decades has died.
William John Coles, 91, who died on Christmas Eve, was a “loyal” employee at Young Coaches of Rampton, Cambridgeshire, since the late 1950s.
His funeral procession on Friday saw Mr Coles transported in one of his own coaches.
He was born in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, in October 1929, where he grew up with his three siblings, Sybil, Neville, and Bruce.
With parents Arthur and Ruby, they ran the family bakery, baking and delivering bread together. They also ran a farm with a number of pigs and chickens.
When he returned to the village in 1959 after a divorce, he got a job collecting cars and other vehicles, before working with Ted Young at Young Coaches.
The bakery business went into bankruptcy in about 1963, but Mr Coles raised enough money to buy the family’s property so his parents did not lose their home.
When he hit retirement age, he began volunteering for the ambulance car service at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
His wife Jill became terminally ill in 1995, and so he focused on caring for her before her death in 1998.
Mr Coles leaves behind daughters Zelda, Sarah, and Mary; granddaughters Molly and Frances; and wife Mary.
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