The horse and cart used to be a much-loved part of Dundee life but now the city’s last known surviving carter has passed away at the age of 95.
William, known as ‘Willie’, Cumming started working with a horse and cart for the council in 1935, aged just 16.
Working for the cleansing department, he used a pick-up style cart led by a ‘wee sheltie pony” for two years before he was called up to fight in the Second World War.
His younger sister Rita McLaren said she could still remember his first day.
She said: “He was just a laddie when he went on the carts and he emptied bins.
“I remember when he came home on his first day with his dungarees and boots on, my mum burst into tears because he was so dirty. When he was a young man a job in the corporation was a good, steady job.
“He just had a wee sheltie pony and an old-fashioned farm cart.”
Rita could remember his horse being unimpressed when Mr Cumming was courting his soon-to-be wife Nan, while collecting rubbish from Cameron’s Fish Shop where she worked.
She said: “The horse used to give him a look as if to say it had sat for long enough and it was time to get back to work.”
Hard-working his whole life, daughter Ann Cumming said she could only remember one day when her father had slept in in his 49 years at the cleansing department.
She said: “I think he slept in for work once in his life and remember hearing about how the sparks flew off his boots as he ran down the steep William Street. He turned up 15 minutes late.
“He started work at about 6am and took 45 minutes to prepare the horse and cart but they didn’t get paid until they went out of the yard.”
Despite the hard work, Ann said he was always happy to go to work and only once took time off sick when he had problems with his appendix.
After Mr Cumming returned from the war he was given a three-wheeled lorry as a replacement for his horse and cart, and he rose to the rank of inspector before he retired from the department on August 25 1984.
Ann said her father was painfully aware of his role as the last surviving carter after reading a notice about the death of a former colleague recently.
Mr Cumming was also a keen dancer, winning several awards, a gardener, and a poetry lover. He wrote a poem to his son Robert who died tragically before him.
The oldest of seven siblings, Mr Cumming is survived by his remaining four sisters, Rita McLaren, Ruby Middleton, Betty Rodgers, Cathie Petrie and brother Jimmy Cumming, as well as his daughter Ann.