A RETIRED lorry driver honoured more than 50 years ago for saving the lives of workmen in an A1 crash has moved into a new home.

Durham Aged Mineworkers’ Homes Association has built 15 bungalows on the former steelworks site at Consett, with another 15 to follow later in the year.

Among the first to move into the £3m St James’ Court development was 79-year-old George Walker, from Witton Gilbert, who only recently retired as an HGV driver.

In 1960, Mr Walker was awarded The Order Of Industrial Heroism, popularly known as the Workers’ VC, for risking his own life to avert a tragedy.

He was driving a lorry full of heavy steel bars down the A1 near Thirsk when a trailer crammed with workmen broke free from the truck which was pulling it and swerved in front of his vehicle.

Realising they would all be killed if he hit them, Mr Walker swerved and hit the verge at speed, sending the steel bars flying through his cab. One of them pierced his leg, pinning him to the lorry.

Mr Walker remembered: “It all happened so quickly but without a doubt, given the speed I was going and the load I was carrying if I had hit the trailer, all the men on it would have died.

“By instinct I swerved away from it and the next thing I remember was seeing one of the steel pipes sticking out of my leg, which was quite a shock”.

He was rushed to hospital where it was feared his leg would have to be amputated, but doctors were able to save it and after a long road to recovery he returned to driving.

When news of his heroism spread, Mr Walker was nominated The Order Of Industrial Heroism, an award presented by The Daily Herald between 1923 and 1964. I

Mr Walker said: “Receiving the award was totally unexpected but to know it is for heroism has always made me very proud.”