VETERAN TAXI-DRIVER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18885, 6 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

VETERAN TAXI-DRIVER.

CABMAN FOR*FORTY*YEARS.

•KING EDWARD AS FARE.

London's oldest taxi-driver. Mr. Thomas Prior, died in October. At the inquest it was stated that he was 79 and had died suddenly from heart disease. He recently passed the hearing and sight tests at Scotland Yard without difficulty. "My grandfather," said one of Mr. Prior's grandsons. " had been driving cabs in London for 54 years, and was at the wheel the night before his death. For 40 years ho mounted the ' dickey ' of a hansom cab, and took to driving a taxi in 1910. He preferred tho taxi as he was able to earn more money. "In his hansom-driving days he several times had as passenger King Edward, then Prince of Wales, and on one occasion after he came to tho Throne. With all his experience of character-read-ing he was not very often bilked. But two smartly-dressed men recently asked him to wait while they went for a drink at the Criterion bar. Instead of waiting, he followed them and demanded his faro. In the end they owned up that they had not enough money, so he drove them to a pawnshop, and ono of the pair ' popped ' his watch !

" Grandfather was a Berkshire man and was born near Wantage, and his first job was crow-scaring when ho was 7 years old. He has been working ever since."