ON our tour of old Darlington garages in Memories 412, we mentioned that the general sales manager at John Neasham’s Ford garage in Parkgate was the wonderfully-named Baron Gabriel H Calcagni de Tande. “Gabby was my uncle and the Darlington girl that he married was my mum’s sister, Blanche Oliver,” says Trevor Griffiths, in Darlington. They got married and Gabby intended to return to Algeria, but the heat was too much for Blanche. So he settled in Darlington, and fell in with John Neasham, a remarkable entrepreneur. He was probably best known as a director of Darlington Football Club from 1936 to 1964, and as chairman from 1951.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 30, 2019 04:52 UTC