Yet when a memorial service is held for him, I can guarantee that the pews will be packed with friends, colleagues, relations and a fair number of those whom he served so selflessly for so long.

Stan was a working man who never forgot his roots. He kept in employment for 50 years despite being made redundant three times and having huge difficulty in finding engineering jobs in the Eighties when they all but vanished in Brighton. It was typical of him to organise a slap-up meal for his pals when he eventually retired.

So he knew what it was like to have a job of grinding monotony, what it felt to be paid poorly, and, briefly, the misery of being out of work from personal experience.

Stan also lived among the people he served. He was on the old Moulsecoomb estate before eventually building himself a beautiful bungalow in Bevendean which stands there proudly today.

Like many Socialists who grew up in the inter-war years amid great poverty, Stan never forgot the experience and campaigned strongly to get rid of inequality.

He lived long enough to see the Blair revolution and although it was not quite what he'd envisaged when young, he preferred it to the alternative.

But unlike some of his colleagues, Stan was never bitter towards his political opponents, however much he disagreed with them. He realised that they were also there to serve people and he would always chat to them.

Iam conscious of making Stan sound a little too much like a saint. He never was, not even a secular one. But he undertook innumerable small kindnesses, and a few major ones, for many people, including me, and never expected anything in return.

His reward was to be the founding father of a political dynasty which, despite some trials and tribulations, has been as long lasting as any this century in Brighton. As a strong family man, Stan appreciated that more than anything.

Two Tory councillors have commented on my column last week which mentioned that Lady Thatcher, when Prime Minister, abhorred beards.

Robin Allen, who used to be the agent for Julian Amery when he was Brighton Pavilion MP, commented that he was a clean shaven Minister but later proceeded to sport a very large beard indeed. He asks: "Was he trying to tell her something?"

Brighton and Hove councillor Stephen Wade grew a beard 20 years ago and once met Mrs Thatcher who didn't seem to mind. What is more disturbing is that people tell him that he now looks like Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

He added: "I thought I could make money by doing an impersonation but then again, would I really want the opprobrium associated with that? I decided to keep the beard and instead employ a team of PR consultants to approach him and say, 'You look just like that Tory councillor, Stephen Wade'."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.