Brian was born in Chapel Allerton, Leeds in 1953, the same year his parents bought his house in Allerton Grange Gardens, and he lived there all his life.
Born prematurely, he suffered all his life with poor vision and coordination which affected his education at St Matthews primary school and Allerton Grange comprehensive school. His ambition was to work in health care and the family was proud of his achievement in securing a place to train as a nurse. But his dyspraxia prevented him from qualifying, which was a great disappointment to him. Despite this setback, he went on have a 35 year career as a postal worker in the Central Leeds sorting office. He often joked that he was the only Guardian reading member of the sorting office team.
Brian retired at 55 and found a new freedom in this stage of his life. He had a full daily and weekly routine which involved a regular neighbourhood walking and running route (which more recently included litter picking), reading books and newspapers, writing his journal and keeping up with the weekly soaps, a pleasure he shared every afternoon with Vera at number 14. He had a great interest in the wider world. One of the new joys he discovered in retirement was travelling abroad. He would join international guided package travel programmes to explore many of the places he read about - Alaska, Barcelona, Canada, Turkey, Jordan, Sri Lanka, India, Scandinavia, Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam and of course his favourites South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. He particularly enjoyed waterfalls, contorted rock formations and long views over mountains and lakes. But before Brian had ever travelled abroad, he had already developed a deep interest in Southern African politics, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We therefore weren't surprised that he was determined to be there in person to witness the first post-apartheid election in 1993 and he travelled to Cape Town and Johannesburg to stand in line with black postal workers as they queued up to vote for the first time. He came back with many stories of the conversations he had had during this memorable trip. Throughout his life Brian kept a journal of newspaper items relating to the freedom struggles in Zimbabwe and South Africa which he assiduously typed up every day. This amazing archive will be donated to a suitable University institution in Southern Africa as he always wished.
Brian’s interest and knowledge gained from the wide scope of his reading was not just about Southern Africa.

Alan MABIN (PhD Simon Fraser, MA Wits, MSAPI) is Emeritus Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, which he directed from 2005 to 2010. He worked in a variety of departments and schools at Wits from 1981 till 2013. Alan has research experience in Brasil, France, Tanzania and South Africa as well as NGO, post apartheid government, and consulting experience. He was a co-founder in 1985 of Planact (NGO) with which he remains associated, played roles in local government negotiations in the early 1990s, was a member and deputy chairperson of the PWV [Gauteng] Demarcation Board 1995-97, and a member and Deputy Chairperson of the Development and Planning Commission 1997-2001. His papers relate mostly to these activities.

Colleen McCaul was a highly regarded transport consultant whose work was central to the development of the post-apartheid public transport system. She was a recognized expert on the minibus taxi industry of South Africa, having authored “No Easy Ride: The Rise and Future of the Black Taxi Industry” (SAIRR, 1990). She was a specialist advisor to the National Taxi Task Team after 1994, and worked on drafting the National Land Transport Transition Act and the National Land Transport Act that together formed the backbone of South Africa’s new transport system.
She was best known as the project manager of Johannesburg’s Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, the largest municipal infrastructure project in South African history. McCaul was recruited to Rea Vaya in early 2008, when Rea Vaya was in the process of being planned, and ran it until the launch of Phase 1b of the system in 2013. She subsequently worked for the National Department of Transport in its work on Rea Vaya and other BRTs, and—through the expertise she developed building Rea Vaya—was recruited to the reference committee for the international “BRT Standard” with worldwide influence.

Edward (Eddie) Roux was born 24.4.1903 in Johannesburg. He died on 2.3.1966. Eddie was a plant physiologist, chemist and political agitator. He was the eldest of 6 children born to Phillip R. Roux, a pharmacist and wife, Edith May Wilson.

Roux went to Jeppe High. He went onto Wits University where he obtained a B.S.c in botany and zoology in 1924. It was during 1929 that he obtained a Ph. D. at Cambridge. It was at this time that he became involved in communist activities. He began to organize Black workers in Durban, when Oswald Pirow, (Minister of Justice) banned him from the city.

In 1936 he resigned from the Communist Party. In 1946 he became senior lecturer in plant physiology at Wits. In 1957 he joined the Liberal Party, he was already chairman of the South African Rationalist Association. In 1962 he was promoted to Prof of botany.

In 1964 he was banned from entering or lecturing at any educational institution or publish any papers. His most important works are: "Rebel Pity", "Time longer than rope", "A history of the black man's struggle for freedom in S.A.", "Harvest & health in Africa", "The how & why of science". He also wrote numerous scientific papers.