Return to Camden Ambulance Station for 1960s driver

Michael Culverhouse made an emergency call when he needed urgent medical help in October after his blood count fell dangerously low.

The 90-year-old was cared for by paramedic Simone Gianni and assistant practitioner Julie Sheppard - both based at Camden Ambulance Station where he used to work.

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After he recovered, Michael and his wife Vicki were given a tour of his old ambulance station, with a trip down memory lane.

Michael joined the ambulance service as a driver in 1962 when he was 28 and worked out of Camden and Battersea alongside his brother Macdonald.

He recalled stories from his time as a London County Council driver — long before the days of paramedics with cutting-edge motorcycles and electric cars treating patients at home rather than rushing them to hospital.

Michael Culverhouse and his wife Vicki with staff at Camden Ambulance Station (Image: London Ambulance Service)

“There were no sirens like today,” Michael recalled. “We had to ring a bell as we drove to pick up people.

“We only knew basic first-aid and had to put patients on stretchers and get them to hospital fast, very different to how they’re treated at the scene today.”

He was also shown a vintage 1940s Daimler DC27 ambulance on his visit, similar to ones he drove in the 1960s.

He told the paramedics about his very first call-out, a butcher boy in Islington who had collapsed.

“There was a lot of blood,” he remembers. “But when we turned him over we saw the blood was from all the meat he was carrying and he wasn’t badly injured at all!

"There were difficult jobs though. Those calls stay with your forever.”

The visit to his old ambulance station after six decades meant a lot to him and his wife.

Assistant practitioner Julie said: “Vicki kept looking at me and saying it was a dream come true, as he always wanted to come back. Once you’ve worked for us, you’re always part of ‘the family’.”

Michael left in 1965, the year the present London Ambulance Service was formed from parts of existing services covering inner London, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Essex when the new Greater London county was established.

He later did a stint as a bus driver for autistic children, always caring for others — now today’s paramedics were caring for him.

Michael’s wife Vicki said: “It was so lovely to visit the team at Camden. He loved his time at the ambulance service and always has taken an interest in what London Ambulance Service does.”