KING J.S. 1932 – 2012 – at School 1942 – 51

Stanley King died on October 7th 2012 after a short illness. Stanley was a man of many and varied talents and interests. He came to School in 1942 as a Bradford City Scholar and after progressing through to the Upper Sixth was offered a place to study at university. However National Service intervened and after completion of his two years serving King (no pun intended) and Country he decided not to take up his place at University but instead began a career in the Textile Industry as an Accountant.

He became involved in local politics – indeed he was a politician of the ‘old school’ with traditional values and served on Bradford City Council for nearly 40 years representing his home ward of Heaton – being deputy chairman of the Transport Committee and serving as Lord Mayor of the City in 2000. In more recent times he was firstly Deputy and subsequently Chair of Metro – the transport authority for the whole of West Yorkshire. His interest in Transport was also his hobby – he was a strong proponent of the Trolleybus and was involved in the preservation of historic transport vehicles – his involvement in the rescue and preservation of the last Bradford Tram and his presidency of the Sandtoft Trolleybus museum being just two examples of this interest. He was also a prolific writer on local transport history having many books published. It was fitting that two beautifully preserved Bradford City Transport motorbuses were parked outside the Church at his funeral.

However his transport interest was not confined to the past, and as Chair of Metro he was forward looking and instrumental in driving through many new initiatives and improvements in the local transport infrastructure in West Yorkshire.

Stanley’s other great interest was local history – particularly relating to his home village of Heaton on which subject he had written extensively, and had many works published; he even went so far as to purchase the title of “Lord of the Manor of Heaton” and held an annual Manor Court. As Lord of the Manor he resurrected the ancient ceremony of “Beating the Bounds” of the historic manor of Heaton, which was also held annually. But again the past wasn’t the extent of his interest – he was instrumental in the formation of the Heaton Township Association and the Heaton Woods Trust – both organisations being Community initiatives to preserve and improve the environment within Heaton Village and its rural surrounds.

It is a measure of the respect in which he was held that it was (literally) standing room only in St Barnabas’ Church Heaton on the occasion of his funeral which was attended by representatives from all the organisations with which he had been involved. It was fitting that the service was held was at St Barnabas – he had been christened there and sung in the choir as man and boy throughout his life. He had left strict instructions about the form of service to be used (1662) and that everyone should “Sing Up” He left the congregation with these words:

“I have lived more than the scriptured three score years and ten and have done
most of the things I wanted to do as well as some I never thought of doing”

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing properly”

Heaton, Bradford and West Yorkshire will miss him. We all will.