In 1963 my friend Tim Lewis, who has died aged 80, bought a double-decker bus with a fellow university student, which, driven by Tim, “starred” in the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night. The bus, which took students on camping holidays and was kept outside Tim’s parents’ house close to Twickenham Studios in south west London, had been spotted by a producer. It later appeared in other films, including To Sir, With Love. Tim’s love affair with transport was sealed, and he went on to run a bus company and work as a transport passenger executive in South Yorkshire.
Born in Chelsea, London, Tim was the only child of Harriette (nee Weiner), a housewife, and Bernard Lewis, a barrister. When, at Rugby school, he and two others launched a soccer team called the Rugby Rebels, the news made the papers. The headmaster was not amused, and Tim and his friends were carpeted.
