DUNTON, UK – In this fourth in our mini-series of Transit Memories stories we feature Peter Lee. Known as Mr Transit, he founded the Transit Van Club, and he’s converted an entire floor of his house into a Transit “museum” that contains almost 30,000 pieces of memorabilia.
There’s precious little that Peter Lee doesn’t know about Ford’s iconic van, but when asked what his favourite Transit memory is, it turns out he was once given a lift by British boxing legend Henry Cooper in his Transit back in the 1960s.
“I grew up in London, and Henry Cooper was the British Heavyweight Champion in the mid-60s’,” Peter explains. “Henry also ran a greengrocer's shop called "Henry Cooper – Fruiterer and Greengrocer" on Wembley High Road in London, and he famously drove a Ford Transit.
“I remember I was waiting for a bus in the rain, and Henry pulled up, asked where I was going and then offered me a lift. I was buzzing. Henry was very famous at the time, and there I was sat next to him in his Transit. He was very kind, very generous and an immense character.”
Peter says he bumped into Henry years later at an event in London. “I went up to him and said we’ve met before and told him that he gave me a lift in his Transit back in the 60s. And do you know what, he remembered it clearly. Henry really was a lovely man. God bless him. That has to be my favourite Transit memory. I’ll never ever forget meeting him.”
Henry, who was knighted in 2000, was a former British, European and Commonwealth champion best remembered for his two momentous fights against Muhammad Ali in 1963 and 1966. He died, aged 76, in 2011.
Peter’s passion for Transits began in the mid to late 1960s, having worked on the production line at Ford’s Langley Plant, near Heathrow Airport.
He then travelled across France to Spain in the first Transit he bought, staying in a hippy commune next to a large strawberry farm. He was soon fruit picking to earn money and became known as “Mr Transit” by his fellow workers - a name that has stuck for 53 years.
On his return to the UK, he started a new construction business, building office complexes, shopping centres, residential housing and industrial units, where the Ford Transit also played a very important role - with a fleet of 28 vans and 180 employees across London and the South East.
Peter retired in 1998 and has since doubled down on his passion, dedicating his time to collecting models, brochures, posters and physical Transit vans, building what is probably the most unique and impressive collection of Transit memorabilia in the world.
Today, Peter owns five Transit vans, all of which are very important to him for the role they have played in Transit’s history, its path to becoming a British icon and, in his own words “the best loved van in the World.”
