David Michael Edwards of Wimborne recently attended a reunion of the local Automobile Association. He joined the association in 1961 and after completing a two week training course in Keysworth, Nottinghamshire, was given a sidecar and sent to a base at Sturminster Marshall to patrol the road from Blandford to Wimborne. He would later patrol other roads in the area.

During the terrible snow storm in January 1963 David and the nearby garage at Tolpuddle had to winch several cars out of the snow covered fields. The snow remained on the roads until the May.

Mondays after wet weekends were spent at Rockley Sands starting cars that didn't like the damp conditions. Because he was patrolling the roads he would be the first to the scene of an accident and would often help with the injured.

The box he stood by on A35 at Bloxworth was his main stopping point. The dray men from Eldridge Pope brewery used to pull in for their break and sometimes they would leave him a couple bottles of beer. When the classic 'Far From the Madding Crowd' was filmed in the village he met Julie Christie and Terence Stamp.

He also met Sir Piers Debenham who owned most of Briantspuddle. Debenham drove to London in his Zodiac and then picked up his Rolls Royce to go to meetings.

David and his colleagues did the parking for cocktail parties at the big houses and parking for weddings and other big events.

In 1970 he was in a team testing public car lights in the Bournemouth area and was one of three men from the Hants and Dorset road staff to visit Jersey and Guernsey to test car lights.

He left the AA a year later.