Obituary

Arthur Smythe Henderson
25th August 1926 – 4th December 2019

Arthur Henderson who died in December at the age of 93, remained an active member of the Club from 1967. He was a friendly person who believed in the value of communities, and enjoyed playing Church organs. Over the years he took part in the ‘Northern Meets’, ‘Southern Walks’ and Club meets in Austria. In 2015 he made it to the ‘luncheon’ part of the Luncheon Walk, trekking across country by bus, train and muddy field, arriving as the lunch was in full swing. The last Club event he attended was the 2019 New Year’s dinner in the Spaghetti House, where he had celebrated his 90^th birthday with Club members in August 2016. He celebrated his 80^th birthday at Clare College, Cambridge, with AAC(UK) members mingling with friends from his working life. Arthur’s abiding interest was transport planning and road design. He was one of the inventors of the ‘Guided-Bus concept’, that has often been downgraded to Bus Lanes, and argued, mostly in vain, for the introduction of correct geometries to allow vehicles of all sizes to turn corners safely. He was well known in the Club for keeping elderly Green Line Buses in a field at the bottom of his garden. Contrary to rumour, they weren’t just ‘pets’. In the late 1970s a group of Belgian members came over for a weekend in the Lakes. They spent Friday night on various people’s floors and next morning were transported to the Lakes in one of Arthur’s buses. In the late 2010s his amusing 'phone' calls were much appreciated in the AAC(UK) Office.

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