Express & Star

Tributes are paid to coach firm founder and Stafford Rangers president Leon Douglas

Tributes have been paid to a founder of one of the UK's leading coach companies based in Stafford.

Published

Leon Douglas, who started Leons Travel Group in 1951 and was also club president of Stafford Rangers Football Club, died on Saturday morning, aged 82.

Leon Douglas

He also played a role in a coaching capacity at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Mr Douglas had been ill for some time and was a resident at Limewood Care Home in Limetree Avenue.

Mr Douglas started the company as a taxi business at the age of 21. His son Robert, the managing director at Leons, where he and his brother Andrew work, said his father was known as a jolly, happy person.

He added: "My father started the company as a taxi business and had his first minibus in 1970. Years later he had his first big coach in 1976 and now there's 43 vehicles in the fleet."

Mr Douglas started Leons in 1951 when his mother Wyn passed him two taxis to operate. The business ran from Porlock Avenue, Weeping Cross.

In September 1976, he bought two coaches from Gary Hall and relocated to Redhill in Stafford which had an established a garage and offices. Sons Robert and Andrew joined the company in the 1980s and started work as minibus drivers. They later both became directors of the company in 1996.

At the time of his death, he was joint president at Stafford Rangers alongside Jon Downing. Mr Downing said: "Leon was for many years a stalwart of Stafford Rangers Football Club. He has done a tremendous amount both for the football club and the social club and will be sorely missed."

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