Names on the buses

848 Sir George Everest

Connections with Brighton and Hove : The man with one of the most famous names in the world is buried in Hove and no one is really sure why. It could be that he wanted to be next to her eldest sister, Licetta, but he had no connection with the town and lived in London. Everest gave his name to the tallest mountain in the world as a result of his successor as surveyor in India, Andrew Waugh, who admired his work. Born in 1790, he took his job as surveyor in India despite many attacks of fever including malaria which almost killed him. He revolutionised the way in which surveying was carried out and his work meant that the Himalayas would be measured accurately for the first time. The highest mountain was found to be 29,0002 feet tall. Everest retired in 1843 after 20 gruelling years in the job and he was not a popular man with his staff because of his sarcastic manner. It was partly because of this and partly because of feeling that the mountain should have a local name that there was opposition to his name being used for the mountain but it has stuck. Everest did not marry until he was 56 and he was older than his father in law was. He and his wife had six children in ten years. He was friendly with many great men of the era including David Livingstone the explorer, and Michael Faraday, the inventor. His grave is in St Andrew’s Church in Hove and was so little known when the mountain was climbed for the first time in 1953 that it took weeks to find.

848 Dennis Trident - carried name since delivery in March 2001, on METRO Line 5, repainted into new livery July 2005. Repainted into standard livery August 2009. Bus sold in April 2014. Name reappeared on 848 Mercedes Streedeck in December 2017.