Dave Eager with his son Harry

BIN workers will line their trucks up in Camden High Street today (Thursday) as part of tributes to a long-serving colleague who has died after a short illness at 65.

Devoted Arsenal fan David “Dave” Eager was known widely in Camden for stopping to have a friendly chat on his rounds, having worked as a London cab driver for more than 30 years and a Veolia dustman for over 24 years. People who he recognised in the street would be stopped for a selfie with him.

The photos would be posted on Facebook with the simple comment “Wallop!”

This game gained a life of its own and was a testament to the number of people who knew him.

His son John said: “It became a thing, people wanted to get walloped, they’d cross the road to have a chat with him and do it, but one of my mates always used to run and hide from it, taking great pride in the fact that he’d never been walloped.

He told me he doesn’t know how he feels any more not having to watch his back that my dad may come out of nowhere to wallop him. It was a bit of fun. People really responded well to it, there’s even one with 50 comments on it.

He probably would have been a TikTok or Insta­gram sensation if he’d played his cards right.” Mr Eager grew up in Ampthill Square, attending William Collins School, now known as Regent High.

Dave with his wife Wendy and sons Harry and John in the Great Nepalese Restaurant in Eversholt Street

He lived on an estate in Somers Town with his wife Wendy for most of his life before moving to Borehamwood in 2013.

Son John said his father had always loved to be behind a wheel: he worked on the refuse rounds, then as a black cab driver, and since 2000, for Camden’s bin contractors, Veolia.

John said: “He loved driving, it was one of the actual things he was good at. He had nothing but passion for the job he did and enjoyed doing it. He was a real social butterfly, he just enjoyed it to the full. Most of his mates from school were ‘on the dust’ as dustmen, so he knew most of the people there and he had a wicked sense of humour.”

A picture perfect wedding day photo

Mr Eager made many close friends during his “side job” as a cab driver. He added: “My brother ended up working for Veolia and I worked there for a little bit. There was a point recently where me, my brother and my dad all worked for Veolia – my brother and I both working in sales jobs and dad in his van.

“He was the kind of man who went out of his way for anyone and if I can be half the man or parent he is and eventually grandad when that day comes I would have completed life in the best possible way.

“He had a few more innings in him. He was due to retire in December and obviously there’s that natural devastating sad fact that he didn’t really get to go and enjoy the finer things in life and spend a bit more time lazing in the caravan he loved in the Isle of Sheppey. But, his legacy is me, my brother and our kids, and all our close family.”

Veolia workers organised for around 20 of their trucks to line Camden High Street today, the day of his funeral.

Union rep Adrian Clark said: “We’re doing this for Dave as he was our friend and colleague. He deserves this completely. He always had time for people here.

“Everyone in Camden knew him and he was known as Mr Camden. For those of us, his colleagues who couldn’t make it to the funeral, this is our way to pay some sort of respect.”