Brian Large Bursary Fund

Born in Dorset in November 1935, Brian John Whitley Large was one of the early group of British transport planners. He attended  Kings School in Taunton where he was in the Scouts and army cadets, and then did National Service before going on to university.

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After graduating in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol in 1959, Brian worked for consultant Sir William Halcrow for three years before spending a year with contractors M J Gleeson.  In 1964 he joined the Greater London Council (GLC), and was sponsored for a transport Masters at Birmingham University, graduating in 1965, where he was described as “probably the best man in that year”.  While with the GLC, Brian was heavily involved in the Greater London Development Plan, giving evidence on behalf of the GLC at the Inquiry into the Plan.

 

In 1974 Brian joined Alan M Voorhees and Associates, initially working on the West Yorkshire Transportation Studies.  In 1981 he was one of a group of Directors of the company, by then Martin and Voorhees Associates, who bought it from its US owners, when it became known as MVA and Brian became a Director of The MVA Group.  Brian was responsible for many projects undertaken by MVA, including the Libyan National Transport Study and Sheffield SuperTram.  He was working in Hong Kong when he died in 1989.

 

Brian enjoyed hill walking, sailing, skiing, photography and relaxing in a beach edge Suffolk cottage.  During the 1960s he, with others, travelled extensively by car in most of Europe, to Russia, to North Africa and from Baghdad through Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan.

 

Brian's mother, Mrs Mollie Large, who died in December 1994 at the age of 91, had been generous in supporting the Fund when it was set up and provided in her will a further lump sum to strengthen the Fund’s finances.