Bus honour for our top residents

WHAT do a war hero, Albion’s top goal scorer, a pioneering doctor and this country’s greatest ever prime minister have in common?

It may sound like the guest list of a fantasy dinner party, but they all grace the front of Brighton and Hove buses.

Since 1999, the company has named each new bus after a city resident who has made a significant contribution to the area.

There are few qualifying criteria, other than the chosen man or woman must have been dead for at least a year before being nominated.

Many of those who appear will need no introduction – Charles Dickens, Dame Anita Roddick and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to name but a few of the household names.

However, while many of the names may ring a bell, their stories are not as well known as perhaps they should be. Here is our guide to some of the incredible men and woman who appear on the buses.

TOMMY COOK  

For such a sport-mad city, it is a surprise that so few know the story of perhaps our finest sportsman.

Tommy Cook was the ultimate all-rounder.

Not only did he score more than 20,000 runs for Sussex, he is also Albion’s top goal scorer of all time with 123 goals in 209 games.

Born in Cuckfield in 1901, he even went on to manage Albion and was the club’s first England international.

He served in both World Wars but tragically it was experiences during these conflicts which would lead to his suicide aged 49 in January 1950.

Like many football-playing cricketers of the time, he was quick on his feet and a fantastic athlete.

However, he didn’t go through the usual channels to earn his chance at top-level cricket. He had been invited by a friend to bat in the Sussex nets to give the club’s bowlers some extra practice.

Such was his talent, within a fortnight he found himself travelling up to Old Trafford with the team for his first county game. He scored 50 not out in his first match.

Many thought it was a fluke and expected his county career to be short-lived, but Cook went on to score 20,198 runs, with a top score of 278.

On the football field he was arguably even more talented and remains Albion’s top goalscorer. He was the league’s leading scorer in the 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1927-28 seasons, and scored an incredible eight hat-tricks.

During the First World War, he served as a seaman and was decorated for diving into the freezing sea in Russia to save a man who had fallen overboard.

For the Second World War, having moved to South Africa to work as a cricket coach, he joined the country’s air force. He was the only survivor of a plane crash during the war – an experience which haunted him for the rest of his life.

Having moved back to Brighton, he endured flashbacks and nightmares and suffered from bouts of depression. Just ten days after his 49th birthday, it all became too much and he took a fatal overdose.

COUNTESS OF ROTHES  

Lucy Noël Martha, the Countess of Rothes, was born into money and great privilege in 1878.

But despite her wealth, she was a selfless philanthropist and social leader who went out of her way to help others.

She was a popular figure among the elite in London and was known for her charity fundraising work with the Red Cross and The Chelsea Hospital for Women.

Despite her social standing, during the First World War she rolled up her sleeves and worked as a nurse. One of her lasting legacies is the Hurlingham Fete, Fair and Sports, an event she set for wounded soldiers in 1918.

However, she is perhaps best known for her heroics six years earlier after the supposed unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg mid-way across the Atlantic.

With the ship going down, she was put into one of the few lifeboats by crew members and told to sit tight.

But with others around her paralysed with fear, she took control of the tiller and steered the lifeboat around the sinking vessel in an attempt to find survivors.

Those who were in her boat later told reporters how she comforted those with her and helped keep spirits up with songs.

Taking over the oars, she rowed all night searching for survivors, before they were picked up by RMS Carpathia the following morning.

Once safe, she continued to help those survivors and took to looking after the women and children.

She was labelled a hero in the press but played down her involvement and returned to normal life as best she could.

She lived her later years in Hove and died in September 1956.

She was portrayed in the Oscar-winning 1997 film by Rochelle Rose.

PHOEBE HESSEL

Phoebe Hessel was perhaps the first female to serve in the British Army – although nobody knew it at the time.

As a young woman she disguised herself as a man so she could sign up. It is believed she did so to enable her to fight alongside her lover, Samuel Golding.

She served all over the world including in the West Indies and Gibraltar but was badly wounded in the Battle of Fontenoy in present day Belgium in 1745.

Shortly after, officers became aware of her lie after she was stripped to be whipped. With her commanders standing around her in shock, she is said to have shouted out “strike and be damned”.

She was thrown out of the Army, but her incredible story does not end there.

She moved to Brighton and married fisherman Thomas Hessel. He died aged 80 and she was forced to take to the streets and sold fish around the town.

She worked well into her 90s and was a well-known figure in the community, taking to selling oranges and gingerbread near to the Royal Pavilion in her later years.

She lived to the remarkable age of 108 and is buried at St Nicholas Church.

CHARLES CUTRESS 

The name Cutress will mean little to most people.

However, you will all know the name of his business: Forfars.

The Cutress family started milling in Sussex in the 16th century and legend has it they once gave shelter to none other than Oliver Cromwell in one of their windmills north of Brighton.

Their milling operation continued for six generations and the family gained a reputation for quality and reliability in the trade.

However, it was Charles Cutress who took the family business to the next level in 1937, when he bought a little-known bakery called Forfars.

Back then there were only two shops, one in Hove Villas and another in Church Road – which remains today.

He created a new central bakery in Whippingham Street in 1949 on a site which had previously been a laundry and the business continued to grow in the 1950s and 1960s.

The family also went on to run the Eaton Restaurant in Hove, the Pump House in Market Street and the Courtlands Hotel in The Drive.

Today, Forfars continues to be run as a family business with 150 employees, 15 shops and seven snack vans keeping Sussex well fed and watered.

MARTHA GUNN

Many will have enjoyed a pint in the pub bearing her name in Upper Lewes Road, but few know her story.

Martha Gunn, or the Queen of the Ocean as she was otherwise known, did more than most to promote Brighton as a holiday destination.

She was what was known as a dipper.

Dippers would help the well-to-do from their bathing machines and lower them into the sea before dipping them in the water and pushing them through the waves.

The role was not for the weak and a man or woman of considerable size was needed.

Martha was more than capable and her strength became legendary. She even appeared in comic caricatures of the times, one in which she is pictured fighting off the invading French wielding a mop.

She was also said to have been a favourite of the Prince of Wales and he gave her free access to the royal kitchens.

She worked as a dipper from 1750 to 1814, while living in East Street, and died in 1815.

DOROTHY STRINGER

Few have done more for Brighton and Hove in recent years than Dorothy Stringer.

Born in 1894, her family was already well known locally. Her father was an alderman and her mother a member of the board of guardians.

She followed in their footsteps and joined the council’s education committee in 1923 – and remained there for an incredible 50 years.

During her years of service, she became the committee’s first chairwoman and in 1952 was made mayor.

She continued as an ever-present figure in Brighton and Hove well into her later years and worked tirelessly representing residents.

In particular, she spent a lot of time and effort representing the women of Brighton who she said had served with distinction during the Second World War.

She also spoke up for and looked out for disadvantaged youngsters and held countless fundraising events for them.

In 1955, she had a school named after her and she was later awarded an OBE.

In 1968, she was awarded the Freedom of the Borough for her tireless work. She died nine years later aged 77.