A man who became a minister after years of working on the buses has died.

The Rev John Peter Senior, 91, was a member of the Team Ministry at Almondbury, having moved back to the area.

Mr Senior was born in Menston but his family moved to Huddersfield when his father changed his work place.

He was educated at Almondbury Grammar school, Huddersfield Technical College and Paisley College. During World War II he was sent to Greenock to work on developing submarine torpedo systems.

In 1946 he returned to Huddersfield and took up a post with Huddersfield Corporation Transport,. working on his beloved trolley buses as well as diesel buses covering every possible role and ending in a management post. He liked to relate how, when he was in management, he was responsible for introducing one-man operated buses which needed a special Act of Parliament to be passed before the system could be put into operation.

He left Huddersfield to work in Burnley as Transport Manager where his position meant that every bus carried his name on it! Later he worked for Ribble Buses, then the largest public transport company in England.

Whilst in this post Mr Senior became a Christian and felt a calling to the priesthood. He trained at Edinburgh Theological College and was ordained Deacon in Blackburn Cathedral in 1965 and priested in September 1966.

He served his title in Blackpool and continued to serve there as a parish priest until he moved to Heddon on the Wall from where he retired. He and his wife Sheila , whom he married in 1976, came to live in Almondbury.

In his retirement John enjoyed visits to transport museums and especially appreciated the lunch time organ concerts in Huddersfield Town Hall. He also joined Probus and

enjoyed those meetings.

Perhaps his most fulfilling retirement activity was as a member of the Almondbury clerical team and he was to be found on many occasions leading services at All

Hallows’, St Lucius, Farnley Tyas and St Michael and St Helen’s churches in the parish.

A funeral will take place on Friday, August 7, at 1.30pm All Hallows’ Church Almondbury.