Conductress finds ‘small fortune’ on bus

A box containing what the Observer of September 1944 called a `small fortune’ was found on a bus which had travelled for miles without anyone noticing it.

Bannockburn bus conductress Lizzie O’Donnell of Park Crescent, who worked for W Alexander & Sons Ltd, discovered the cardboard box beneath the seat of a bus she was clearing at Stirling.

She at first thought eggs might be inside the box but opened it to find it contained £2000 in £1 Bank of England notes. That’s the equivalent of almost £88,000 in today’s money.

Lizzie. who was amazed by the find, alerted her superiors and the money was deposited at a bank for safe-keeping.

Next day Andrew Muirhead of Milnathort phoned Stirling bus station to claim the money. The Observer said his name, which was on the box, established that the cash was his.

It transpired that Mr Muirhead had taken the money to Glasgow to `complete a deal’ but it failed to come off and he returned to Stirling with the money.

He visited his brother, a Bannockburn man, before catching the bus to Milnathort. It was when he got off there that he left the money on the bus which then travelled on to St Andrews and back to Stirling.

Mr Muirhead’ was later contacted by his brother who had seen a newspaper report about the discovery and guessed the money was his.

Regulations in force at the time fixed the maximum reward payable for property found on the bus at £2. A gesture of thanks for her honesty, Mr Muirhead handed over to conductress Lizzie £2 plus a further £10 by way of a `thank you’. A total of £12 in 1944 would be worth more than £500 today.