Veteran goes on last tour (From Stroud News and Journal)

Veteran goes on last tour

A D-DAY veteran who worked tirelessly to organise weekend coach breaks for his pals has decided to call it a day after 42 years.

Alec Hill, 88, started Hill's Tours in 1962 when he set up a pontoon outing in Blackpool for his fellow regulars at the Carpenters Arms in Westrip.

"I really got into the village life and was really enthusiastic about everything," he said.

"Then one day somebody said it would be nice to have a coach tour."

From then on the tours grew in popularity as Alec, a former naval gunner, arranged trips across the UK, from the Yorkshire Moors to Newquay and Clacton.

The tours, he said, were characterised by a camaradie and sense of village community increasingly lacking in today's society.

"The same people came every time," he explained. "We weren't strangers, we were all friends.

"It was almost like one happy family."

Alec arranged the weekend breaks twice a year with the help of his daughter Diane and Davis Coaches, usually in April or September to avoid the summer holidays.

And although the weather was usually fine, there was the odd occasion when Mother Nature unleashed her wrath on the unsuspecting coach party.

"We went to the Isle of Wight just after the big storm in 1987," remembered Alec.

"We went to sleep thinking everything was going to be fine and the next day we found this storm had swept all across the south of England.

"The ferry couldn't take us across at first because the sea was too dangerous.

"When we got there it was terrible - the place looked like a battlefield."

Sadly, Alec is doubtful whether any other village resident will take on the tours. But he says his time as a tour operator is definitely over.

"It is a shame but I am getting too old for it," he said. "It was hard work - but it was lovely."

He also thanked local residents Brian Hawkins and Tony Herbert for their sterling work as baggage handlers during the breaks.