When the writer and educator Donald Hinds, newly arrived in London from Jamaica, with boyish good looks and impeccable manners, attended his appointment at the Brixton labour exchange in the mid-1950s, he did so with a certain spring in his step. After all, he had his national exam certificates and the classroom experience that he was certain would land him a good teaching job in the “mother country”, as he called it.
The clerks there had other ideas, and signposted him to try out for the role of “transport executive bus conductor” with London Transport. Donald, who has died aged 89, recalled that “it sounded very grand”. He passed the test and was posted to Brixton bus garage in Streatham Hill, where he became the fifth Black conductor in the company. It was handy for him that one of the drivers who had been asked about the potential pairing told the bosses that he did not mind “working with a coloured”.
