Originally posted @ 12:15 am, Tue 8th Feb 2011
Bill Lythgoe died on Sunday, 6th February.
Bill was a lifelong socialist. He wanted a more equal Britain. Firmly from the Fabian tradition of the Labour movement, Bill loved debate and analysis. BBC Radio 4 was a constant companion at home.
He served the Labour Party in a number of roles including Constituency Party Secretary and Election Agent for Mark Todd (who became MP for South Derbyshire).
Bill served as a Derbyshire County Councillor for the Division of Chellaston between 1981 and 1989; and also served on South Derbyshire District Council as Chair of the Finance Cttee., representing the ward of Melbourne alongside his longstanding friend, Jane Carroll.
Bill lived in Thulston, a small village in the parish of Elvaston, near Derby. He was the current Chair of the Parish Council. He loved his home, which he had recently had extended by his son Nigel.
Born in Luton in 1943, Bill graduated from Manchester University in engineering and became an IT manager for British Rail before studying transport for a doctorate at Leeds University and conducting research.
He was a loyal trade unionist, being a member of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association.
I met Bill when I joined the railways in 1983 and we were quickly comrades. We went campaigning together on a number of occasions including at by-elections.
In 2000, I helped him when he was a candidate in Melbourne at an April by-election and he returned the favour 3 weeks later in the city council elections. I won through his help, against expectations, but Bill had been able to judge that I would win.
Bill was my constant counsel during my 2 years as Parliamentary candidate for South Derbyshire. We were always looking to the future, drawing on his extensive knowledge and experience of election campaigns & policy.
He was looking forward to visiting Ireland this month to help his senator friend win a seat in the lower house.
Bill died shortly after visiting the grounds of Elvaston Castle, a place very dear to him.
His favourite activity was running. At school, he represented Bedfordshire at long-distance running. He was a member of the Shelton Striders and for the last couple of years, had organised the Golden Gates Gallop, a fun run held in the grounds of the castle which raised money for charity.
Our thoughts go to Irene, his close friend; and to his 2 sons and grandchildren.
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Bill was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies ( http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/ ), working mainly on rail related research in the area of behavioural modelling. He studied Crossrail, Woolwich rail tunnel, Manchester and Stansted airports.
For the railways, he managed the development of software for the scheduling of train crew and locomotives to fulfil timetables; and of software to allocate ticket incomes to revenue earning sectors and centres.