I can remember riding in his lorry with my dad when I was small (I was born in 1967). The lorry was kept in a garage in Albany Road.

You can see 'Pea and Potato Merchants, Brentford Market' painted on the side and 'W.J. Ashby & Sons' above the windscreen. There is also a Chiswick 'phone number on the passenger door.

(Phone directories on ancestry.co.uk website show entries in 1954 and 1958: W. Ashby, Potato Merchant, 7 New Stalls, Brentford Market, CHIswick 3464.

He was the third generation of William Ashby to work in the firm, although after his dad Bill died, he worked for his uncles Arthur, Charlie and Albert.

He was approached by Komatsu to see if they could photograph him on the front on a brochure for one of their fork-lift trucks. We joked that he was famous, but thought it was a shame that they never paid him for the privilege!