Leyland Cub KPZ2/1, chassis number 5903, registered HL7538 in 1936 for
the West Riding Automobile Co (464), has a Charles H Roe bus body
originally with 20 seats and served in the Wakefield area till 1949. It
was then obtained by E Pritchard of Newborough in Anglesey with 24
seats, for use on workers services to the Gwynedd slate quarries, local
school services and Pritchard's daily stage service from Newborough to
Llangefni. It served with it's octogenarian owner/driver until 1967 and
then stood for two years in Newborough. It joined the Hollis collection
at Queensferry till 1979 and moved to West Bromwich and Bridgnorth until
1997, before joining the Emerton family's Bounty country bus collection
in Cheshire. There followed a substantial but sensitive restoration to
its 20 year Anglesey image. A second normal control Cub HL9261, with a
diesel engine, had the same working career and is now undergoing
restoration in Oxfordshire after a long spell in Yorkshire. Both Cubs
had the longer style of radiator, HL7538 having the light-six OHV petrol
engine of 29.4 hp and 4.4 litre capacity.
Edward Pritchard was a popular local figure in Anglesey, driving the Cub
until his eighty-eigth year, he lived to be a centenarian. Since
restoration the Cub, nicknamed Prince of Wales, has appeared at various
rallies in Cheshire and Shropshire, attended a Pritchard family re-union
in Anglesey, has taken part in a Heart of Wales Road Run and attended
the Leyland 120 Rally.
