Yes, I remember Bobbie Littler at the Balqueen Hydro hotel and also Charlie Ward. My father had many dealings with these two very efficient but pleasent gentlemen. Although Bobbie Littler was the Manager, most of the day to day business seemed to be done by Charlie Ward. My father, Dick Miller, was always in touch with Charlie, who co-ordinated the whole operation between the hotel and our firm, Miller's Motors, communicating numbers of passengers for the various coach tours, who required a taxi ,who was to be picked up from the IOM Steam Packet boats for the hotel, or who was also leaving that particular day. In the late fifties and early to mid-sixties the Balqueen Hydro was the main hotel in Port St. Mary and, possibly, in the whole of the south of the Island. I remember one day in around the mid-sixties, my father said to my Grandfather, Edward Miller the following words. " The first Drive on, Drive off Car ferry started running today. Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end for us"
A truely prophetic statement as, a very few years later, Miller's Motors slowly died a death: as did the Balqueen Hydro, which became the Bayqueen Hotel eventually. That too eventually closed and the building is now lying derelict and boarded up. A sad end for a once magnificent Hotel, The Balqueen Hydro.