Edward Hillman was the most amazing of all the local bus operators.  He was a rough diamond who relentlessly cajoled staff into efficiency, often firing them on the spot.1

He ended up by adding an airline service from Maylands Aerodrome (now a golf course) to his transport interests.  This made regular flights to the continent starting on 1st April 1933 with a Romford-Paris service.  The airline sealed its success by securing a general post office contract for an air mail service from London, Liverpool, Belfast and Glasgow.¹

Having achieved all this in six brief years Hillman died tragically at the moment of this greatest truimph, succumbing, after a fortnight's illness, to the effects of injuries sustained in the First World War and overwork.  He died on the last day of December 1934.¹

¹ Photograph and text reproduced from Romford, Collier Row & Gidea Park, plate 63, by permission of the author.