Bus named for D-Day veteran who later drove route

A Brighton & Hove bus has been named after a D‑Day veteran who later drove the same route for eight years.

Ken Hobbs, from East Sussex, served with the Royal Army Service Corps before becoming a bus driver after leaving the army in 1947.

The Coaster service, which runs between Brighton, Eastbourne and Newhaven, passes a former Blind Veterans UK rehabilitation centre where he later lived after losing his sight.

Rupert Cox, interim managing director of Brighton & Hove Buses, said: "Naming one of our buses after him is a small but meaningful way to ensure his story continues to be seen and remembered by the communities he was part of."

The charity said Hobbs played a key role in the preparations for the D‑Day landings in June 1944 by waterproofing military lorries.

He later drove one of those vehicles onto Sword Beach as Allied forces arrived in Normandy.

After the war, Hobbs returned to civilian life and took up a job as a bus driver, working on routes that are still in use today.

The newly named bus features a plaque detailing his life and service.

Rupert Cox added: "It is a privilege to pay tribute to someone whose life reflects such dedication, courage and local heritage."

Jo Parker-Smith of Blind Veterans UK said it was "such a wonderful and fitting way to remember Ken" and that he would "think it was just marvellous".

Blind Veterans UK founder Sir Arthur Pearson was previously memorialised on one of the city's buses.

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