Names on the buses

324 Frank Swaysland

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Frank Swaysland was a hardworking man whose main career was on the buses. He was born in 1934 on the Manor Farm estate in Brighton, the youngest of three children. Swaysland went to St Mark’s school which was bombed during the Second World War. Leaving school at 15, he took a job making spectacle frames before doing his National Service in Northern Ireland as a guard. While working at a butcher’s shop in Rottingdean, he spotted a girl working in a cake shop across the road. He sent over a bag of bulls’ eyes as part of the dating process and they were married in 1958. Swaysland started his career on the buses for Brighton Hove and District in 1957 along with his future father-in-law Jose Purdie. He spent most of his 42 years with Brighton and Hove. After starting as a conductor, Swaysland was a time keeper. He became an inspector and finally a controller. Often he was teased gently about being like Blakey in the TV show On the Buses and was also known as Fearless Frank Swaysland. He stopped work in 1999 and had a happy retirement with his family. There were two daughters and two grandchildren. He died in 2016.

324 Alexander Dennis Enviro - carried name since September 2019.