Where else but in Brighton and Hove would you expect Virginia Woolf to cross paths with Sir Norman Wisdom or King Charles II to come face to face with Cardinal Newman?

The names adorning the front of the Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company’s fleet are a vivid reminder of the city’s rich history.

The scheme was the brainchild of the company’s operations director Paul Williams.

He first suggested naming the buses after prominent landmarks but this evolved into honouring the people who have made the area so vibrant and varied.

After all, you wouldn’t want to jump on a bus with Devil’s Dyke on the front, only to find it actually took you Saltdean Lido.

The main criterion for inclusion in this roll of fame is a slightly mournful one – you have to be dead for at least a year.

Two, happily living exceptions to this rule include The Argus columnist Adam Trimingham, honoured for his outstanding work in researching the background history for the company, and Roger French who received the honour, for a limited time, on his retirement in 2012.

Last year more than 30 names were added to the fleet. BBC broadcaster and Fleet Street editor Derek Jameson was added to the Number 5 bus route in November.

The East End boy who rose to the top of his chosen profession lived for many years in Western Esplanade in Hove – know as Millionaire’s Row.

He kept his hand in the journalist trade, writing regularly for The Argus.

He began work in Fleet Street as a messenger boy at the age of 14 and rose through the ranks to edit some of Britain’s biggest newspapers.

He developed a reputation as a builder of circulation and, asked to launch the Daily Star – the first new national tabloid for 75 years – he took it to more than a million copies within a year.

He also put on half a million readers at the Daily Express.

At his funeral in Worthing, his widow Ellen said: “He was an incredible character, I never forgot Derek was an extraordinary man and a one-off. He was the perfect example of a man who lived life to the full.”

Also honoured last year was Jeff Keen, a groundbreaking film maker and artist who worked for many years |as a landscape gardener with Brighton Council.

Recent retrospectives of his work at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and at the Tate in London revealed a startling, dramatic and often funny talent.

His obituary in The Guardian newspaper noted: “Keen’s interest in myth, surrealism and romantic painting complemented his love of movies and comics, and he continually absorbed new references into his work.

"His highly frenetic videos of the 1990s included homages to Apocalypse Now, Rambo and Predator as well as Budd Boetticher westerns...

"The extreme, short edits in his playful, visceral films have helped to keep his work fresh and alive; they still zap with energy decades later.”

In June, the name of Maggie King was added to the Number 5 fleet.

A regular contributor to The Argus letters page, Maggie King was an indomitable presence in the Brighton tenants movement.

She was a lifelong member and senior representative of the GMB union and a tenant representative on Brighton and Hove City Council.

She also fostered sick children, supported a number of local charities, including Brighton Lions, and worked with the East Sussex Credit Union.

Mrs King worked at Bevendean Hospital and Brighton General Hospital before becoming a qualified clinical tutor.

Following her death in 2011, family and friends joined the then-Brighton and Hove mayor Anne Meadows and ward councillor Geoffrey Bowden at a tree planting in her honour at the peace park in Dorset Gardens, Brighton.

A railway enthusiast who preserved one of the country’s best-loved heritage lines was also among those to have bus named in their memory this year.

 

The Argus: Bernard Holden

 

Bluebell Railway founder Bernard Holden died last year aged 104, weeks before his project to restore the Sheffield Park to East Grinstead line saw a successful conclusion.

Mr Holden’s grandson Jim described it as a “huge honour”. He said: “It was a really pleasant surprise, we’re all bowled over. He would have been delighted.”

Mr Holden, who was born in Barcombe station in 1908, worked on the railways all his life – including a stint in India during the war. In the 1950s he started work on restoring the line between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes and so the Bluebell Railway was born.

Over the past half a century the line has been enjoyed by hundreds of thou- sands, with 700 volunteers currently on the books.

Alan Randall, who is best known for founding sports centre Yellowave, was also chosen this year.

After retiring from the head of hospitals in Worthing and Eastbourne, Mr Randall set up Yellowave beach and sports centre in Madeira Drive, Brighton.

Mr Randall joined Brighton Health Authority before becoming chief executive of the trust running Worthing Hospital and Southlands Hospital in Shoreham.

During his time, he oversaw a multi-million pound rebuild at Worthing. His final posting was at Eastbourne where the NHS asked him to carry out improvements before he retired.

He founded Yellowave in 2007 with his daughter Katie and son-in-law Spencer Mintram.

Among other names appearing on the front of the city’s buses lastyear were former mayor of Peacehaven, Chris Ogden, trade unionist George Haines, and David Watkin, best-known for the opening sequence of the films Chariots of Fire and the Oscar-winning movie Out of Africa.

Click here for a full list of the names featured on the front of Brighton and Hove buses.