A 104 year-old man who still catches the coach to regularly travel to classical concerts has had one of the vehicles named after him.
Cecil Higgins, a former artilleryman in World War II, lives in a care home with his 102-year-old brother Douglas.
But once a month he catches the coach from Sheffield to Leeds with friends Andrew, Philip, Derek, Grace and John where they attend organ concerts.
The group got together four years ago after Cecil turned 100 when they began meeting at an organ recital and kept going to the concerts by coach ever since.
National Express have now offered Cecil and his pals free travel – and named one of their coaches ‘Cecil’ in his honour.
“I’m chuffed to bits that my name is on a coach – I think it looks smashing.
“And I’d like to thank National Express very much for the free travel.”
His friend Grace Robinson said: “Cecil always has an interesting tale to tell, usually about his interesting occupation as a stained glass window maker and designer.
“We all have great fun travelling to concerts together and he was really delighted to have a coach named after him and kept beaming all day.”
Cecil had to take all the windows out of Sheffield Cathedral during World War Two and pack them away to stop them being broken by the bombing.
But the windows were still damaged and Cecil had to piece them together from memory.
The work took Cecil, who had a son and a daughter with his late wife Winifred, four years to complete.
National Express UK Coach managing director Tom Stables said: “Cecil’s zest for life and energy are incredible.
“He is a truly remarkable man so we‘ve named one of our coaches after him as a small token of our admiration.
“We are also delighted to offer him and his friends free travel to concerts in Leeds that they go together in future.”
