Frank Hannon

Died: November 3, 2015.

FRANK Hannon, who has died aged 84, was the ordinary Glasgow bus driver given the extraordinary task of taking a Glasgow bus to Hamburg. The Corporation double-decker measured 14ft 3in in height, and Frank had to negotiate a city where the tram wires could dip to 12ft 6in.

The bus spearheaded Glasgow Week In Hamburg, a post-war hands-across-the-sea trade promotion in March 1974 in which a brand-new double-decker bus from the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive played a prominent role in an invasion of Germany that produced nothing but prosperity and friendship.

The bus led a Glasgow task force which included a pipe band, actors from the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow bobbies, the Rangers football team, dancers, designers and industrialists. During Glasgow Week, the eye-catching vehicle became a giant taxi, offering short trips for Hamburgers by day and ferrying VIPs to various venues in the evenings. While the rest of the contingent flew out in March, Mr Hannon and three colleagues headed off overland a week early in February, to reconnoitre as many intended routes in Hamburg as possible.

The crew on the expedition were Glasgow Transport veterans Frank Hannon, driver; Willie MacLachlan, bus engineer; Inspector Bill Pettit, head of Knightswood Bus School; they were specially chosen by Bill Murray, last general manager of Glasgow Corporation Transport.

“Frank’s bus” had already achieved a fair quota of fame, having taken pride of place at the Scottish Motor Show in November 1973 – where it was visited by celebrities including Miss Scotland the beauty queen, and Mr Scotland, Ally McLeod, the Scotland team manager taking the national football squad to the World Cup in Argentina in 1975.

The very notion of a Glasgow bus going to Hamburg in a double-decker captured news desks everywhere, and my three colleagues enjoyed a hectic round of media attention before departure, with driver Frank Hannon featuring strongly. Frank typified the best of Glasgow busmen - he was patient, funny, proud, and diligent.

Always ready with the memorable quote, he produced a famous one-liner during an STV film session, shouting to a passenger: "Herein, heraus!". The television crew loved it. Asked later what it meant, Mr Hannon stated deadpan to the camera: “It’s German for ‘Cumoan, gerraff’”.

Lord Provost Sir William Gray headed a celebratory send-off from the City Chambers direct to the overnight ferry at Harwich. In the hold, Mr Hannon - complete with 10-foot brushes, shampoo, dusters and polish – played his part in a spit-and-polish effort to make the bus ready for a spotless Hamburg arrival

The good news in Germany was that the local journalists turned out in force to welcome the bus being piped ashore. The bad news was that the guide provided by Hamburger Hochbahn Aktiengesellschaft (and we thought that Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive was a mouthful) spoke not a word of English.

The team was billeted in some grandeur in the 26-floor Plaza Hotel, with the Glasgow bus in a position of honour each morning at the front door. Twice daily the bus was loaded with tourist literature, which was then handed out to enthusiastic citizenry.

The daily schedule had Mr Hannon and his colleagues at work by 0700 hours to make the bus polished, petted and pretty, ready to ferry over some 1500 Hamburgers daily on city-centre round trips. Mr Hannon's team then gave the bus a nightly hose-down and thorough handwash inside and out, ready for evening tours of duty taking Glasgow celebrities to exotic places, folk such as Lord Provost Sir William Gray, Chief Constable Sir David MacNee, John Greig and his Rangers team mates, Pipe-Major Tom MacAllister’s world champion Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band and Kitty Lamonte’s gorgeous models. Word spread of course, and soon enough native German VIPs managed to wangle their way on board, for a double-deck bus in a decidedly singledeck city possessed real novelty value.

Frank Hannon, born in Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, was fostered at an early age, sent to Glasgow, and then raised in Tomintoul, Banffshire. Glasgow Corporation had charge of his welfare, and it was fixed that he would leave school in north-east Scotland just days before his 15th birthday. Departing Tomintoul complete with fine Banffshire voice, he was taken to Glasgow to a job working as a message boy for Templeton the grocers.

He wanted more of a career, and ultimately joined the then Glasgow Corporation Transport in 1956 as a driver. In those days, mainstays of the fleet were Glasgow-built Albions and AECs, both wooden-bodied and with crash gearboxes. As a driver based at Larkfield Garage, he operated all over the city’s south side, with memories of how hard a day’s work could be in changing gear, sometimes three or four times between bus stops.

Frank was with Glasgow Transport for some 29 years. He never ventured abroad again, not even for holidays. His final role was as chauffeur to the one-time chief engineer of Glasgow Transport, Moir (later Sir) Lockhead, latterly managing director of First Group, the largest surface passenger transport company in the world.

Frank and his wife Jessie were married for 61 years. He is survived by her, their daughter Susan, and three grandsons.

GORDON CASELY