Names on the buses

 945 Dame Anita Roddick

Connections with Brighton and Hove : Starting from a Brighton back street, Anita Roddick took only a few years to make The Body Shop into an international cosmetics company. She was born Anita Perilli in Littlehampton in 1942 to a poor family which had come to England from Naples at the start of the Second World War. After attending local schools in Littlehampton and college in Bath she married Gordon Roddick in 1970. They opened a restaurant and a hotel before Anita joined the United Nations and travelled extensively. In 1976 when hard up and the parent of two small children, she started a cosmetics shop in Kensington Gardens, Brighton seeking publicity for it through the Evening Argus. Despite its small range of products, it was an immediate success mainly because it was based on strong ethical premises such as not testing anything on animals. There was a rapid expansion until 30 years later it had more than 2,000 shops worldwide and million of customers. Its main UK base was established in her home town of Littlehampton. Roddick then sold out to L'Oreal, causing controversy because that company did not profess to have the same ethical principles. But she said it would learn to adopt them. She carried out a great deal of charitable work including starting The Big Issue magazine raising funds for homeless people and Children on the Edge for orphans. She donated millions of pounds to the Littlehampton Community School. Created a Dame in 2003, she endured some ill health during the last decade of her life including contracting hepatitis C. She died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage in September 2007.

912 Scania Omnidekka - carried name since March 2008 in Coaster 12 livery and Dame added to name in April 2008. Repainted into revised Coaster livery October 2011. Coaster branding removed February 2015. Bus sold in October 2019. Name reappeared on Mercedes Streetdeck 945 in March 2024. Coaster branding removed in March 2024. Repainted into new B&H livery in July 2024.