Call Sign January 2011 - Page 14 - John Boca: An ODRTS legend… -

The name of Adolfo Giovanni Bruno Boca may not immediately conjure up memories of ODRTS’ very early days, but to long-serving members, his better-known name of John Boca (ex-A64) certainly should. In fact Dial-a-Cab founder-Chairman Bonnie Martyn once told Call Sign: "Without the Boca brothers, half of our Board meetings could never have taken place!" John Boca sadly passed away on 1 December at the age of 74. He had suffered health problems for some time, but according to his son John – who is on RTG – just seven days earlier "…he had been playing with my son – his grandson – and looked so happy." When John died, he took with him 1001 memories regarding those pre-Dial-a-Cab days when ODRTS operated from small premises on the corner of Pentonville Road and Affleck Street. John, together with his Italian parents and brother Alan (ex-B99) – real name Aldo who died in June 2003 - ran the cafe on the opposite side to the ODRTS building with its single dispatcher sitting in the window, tongue hanging out as he watched drivers popping in for their cuppa! In those days it was called the Welcome Cafe. Bonnie Martyn – who died in 2002 – had told this magazine how in those days, space for ODRTS Board meetings was very limited at the office so they would frequently have them in the cafe over a cup of tea. Among those involved in the	John Boca: An ODRTS legend…
	*Happier times: John and his late wife Ellen*
	meetings were those such as Dave Fiertag, Albert Hall, Frank Duncan, Trixie Solomons, Doug Naismith, Alec Cobden, Sailor Papier and of course Bonnie himself. They would march in and grab the biggest table they could find and call the meeting to order! When still driving his DaC taxi, John had told us that he really wanted to be a publican, but an ODRTS driver called Ronnie Frewin came into the cafe one day and talked him into going on the Knowledge instead. "I had already done the odd bit of dispatching over the road, so I thought it was worth a try. A similar thing happened to Alan; he had worked in a fish and chip shop before the cafe days, but didn’t fancy that type of life although he didn’t want to run a cafe forever. Then one day Bonnie Martyn came in leading his Board and told Alan that he could do	much better as a taxi driver. We both did the Knowledge and eventually ended up as ODRTS drivers in our own right instead of just serving them tea! We finally sold the cafe in 1963 and it became a block of flats." With John’s death goes a large chunk of the early history of DaC – a history that amazingly is forever enshrined within the English cuppa! Our everlasting thanks are due to people from our past such as John Boca. Our condolences go to his son John - who helped us with some of the details - and his sister Tina who flew back from Australia. John is going to be in good company up there with friends such as Jack Taylor and Bonnie Martyn in addition to all those tea drinkers mentioned earlier, all waiting to see if he has had any good jobs lately! Rest in peace…

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