Mohammed Aslam Hussain
Lovingly known as “Chacha Aslam”
21 March 1940 — 14 August 2022 · aged 82
Bus driver on the number 42, mosque treasurer and patriarch of a family of eighteen
Manchester, United Kingdom Born in Dina, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan Resting at Southern Cemetery, ManchesterAbout Mohammed
Every morning at a quarter to five, before the first bus left Hyde Road garage, Aslam Hussain stood in his kitchen in Longsight and made tea for a wife who was still asleep. It was a small act of devotion repeated for fifty-six years, and the family believe it was the secret of the marriage.
He was born in 1940 in the village of Dina, in the Jhelum district of Punjab, one of six children of a farmer who wanted his eldest to be a clerk. Aslam wanted to see the world, and in 1962 he flew to Britain with a suitcase, an address in Rusholme and a cousin who had promised him a bed. He spent six years on the machines at Ferranti in Moston before the buses found him. From 1968 until 2001 he drove for Manchester Corporation and later GM Buses, most of it on the number 42 down Oxford Road, past the University of Manchester, past Whitworth Park, past a thousand students who never learned his name and a few hundred who did.
He had a rule that nobody ran for a bus alone. If he saw an old woman coming, or a child with a school bag, he waited, and the timetable could manage. In thirty-three years he never had an accident, and he kept the long-service award in a drawer. After retiring he gave his mornings to Manchester Central Mosque in Victoria Park, serving as treasurer and, more often, as the man who fixed the heating and found the missing keys.
He brought his wife Bilqis over in 1966 and together they raised four children and welcomed fourteen grandchildren, each of whom received the same speech about the dignity of honest work. He was a lifelong Manchester City supporter who stood on the Kippax at Maine Road through the bad years and announced in May 2012 that Allah had been testing him all along.
He died peacefully at home in Longsight on 14 August 2022, surrounded by his family. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un: from God we come, and to God we return. His granddaughter Sana, a doctor, said he was her first patient and her hardest, because he kept trying to make the tea.
“Nobody should have to run for a bus alone.”
- Faith
- Muslim
- Place of birth
- Dina, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan
- Resting place
- Southern Cemetery, Manchester
- Passed away
- 14 August 2022, Manchester
Janazah prayer
Monday, 15 August 2022 at 10:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Matriculation
Government High School, Dina1953 – 1957 · Dina, Pakistan
The first in his family to finish school.
Married Bilqis Begum
1960 · Dina, Pakistan
She joined him in Manchester in 1966 and they never spent a night apart again.
Machine operator
Ferranti1962 – 1968 · Moston, Manchester
Six years of early shifts while he learned the city.
Bus driver
Manchester Corporation Transport and GM Buses1968 – 2001 · Manchester
Drove the number 42 down Oxford Road for thirty-three years.
Thirty Years Accident-Free Driving Award
Greater Manchester Buses1998 · Manchester
Kept in a drawer, never displayed.
Treasurer and volunteer
Manchester Central Mosque2002 – 2022 · Victoria Park, Manchester
Kept the accounts balanced and the heating running.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Mohammed is survived by
- Bilqis Hussain· Spouse
- Tariq Hussain· Son
- Imran Hussain· Son
- Nasreen Akhtar· Daughter
- Shaista Hussain· Daughter
- 14 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Mohammed.
Knew Mohammed? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- GM
Fellow City supporter, Kippax stand
Thirty years we stood three seats apart at Maine Road and I never learned why he always carried a flask of chai. In 1998, the year we dropped into the third tier, he poured me a cup without a word, and I understood. Hope comes in small cups.
- ZM
Cousin in Dubai
We grew up flying kites together in Dina. He called me every Friday for forty years to say 'Jumma Mubarak' and to ask whether I still cheated at carrom. I did, and he knew it, and he never stopped asking. May Allah grant him Jannat ul-Firdaus.
- BP
Passenger on the number 42 for fifteen years
He knew my name, my stop and the day my mother died. That morning he waited at the kerb for two full minutes while I stood there unable to move, said nothing, and drove me the long way round. I never forgot it. Rest in peace, driver.
- DH
Granddaughter, now a doctor in Leeds
Grandad drove past my medical school every day for years and told every passenger his granddaughter would study there. When I graduated, he wore his bus cap to the ceremony, sat in the front row and told everyone around him it was the best day of the year. It was the best day of mine.
- IK
Manchester Central Mosque
He was at the mosque before Fajr every day. He was our treasurer, but the accounts were the least of his gifts. When the boiler failed on the coldest night of January he arrived with a spanner and a flask. This community is colder without him.
- NA
Fellow driver, Hyde Road garage
Chacha Aslam covered my Eid shift for twenty years without ever being asked. He would just appear at the depot with a tin of sweets and say he had nothing better to do. We have all driven with some good men, but none of us ever met a kinder one.
