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Tyrone Goh was made an Honorary Doctor of Science of the University in 2005.

Professor Nathu Puri was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science of the University in 2007.

Professor Nathu Puri is a successful industrialist and entrepreneur, renowned philanthropist and devoted supporter of education. He is one of the most powerful Asian businessmen in Britain and an alumnus of the national College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering, which makes him an alumnus of London South Bank University and thus a great role model for our students.

Born in Chandigarh in the Punjab, Nat's family had fallen on hard times. Most observer agree that the seeds of Nat's later ambition and success were probably planted young, watching the collapse of his father's banking business after partition in India in 1947. As a Hindu in a predominantly Muslim area, his father lost most of his money as many of his clients either fled to Pakistan or were the victims of communal violence.

"There were no debtors left, only creditors", Nat Puri recalled.

Eventually, after years of struggle, he himself left India at the age of 27 with a degree in pure maths and little money in his pocket. And it was to the National College that he came and studied and, he now says, profited from the excellent teaching there. After leaving the College, he joined the long-established Nottingham firm F G Skerritt where he worked as an engineer. As the story goes, in 1975 his life took a major turn. He had made a proposal for some new business in the Middle East and when the company declined he walked out with a month's salary. Turning round a property deal, he set up a consultancy which flourished. Eight years later he had bought out his former employer.

And from then on, the story is well known as Melton Meedes, his holding company, now part of the bigger Purico Group of Companies, set out on the acquisition trail. With a small staff in Nottingham, which has become his adopted home, the company gradually became an empire.

With extraordinary single-mindedness, he showed no qualms about the size of any potential new business. He is said to have bid for the likes of Rover and the former British Shipbuilders' yard in Sunderland, despite having no experience of either the car or shipping industry. He didn't get these particular companies, but his capacity to surprise is famous. His interest are extraordinarily diverse and global – from car badges like Mercedes, to waste products, from textiles to cigarette papers and from engineering and construction, including steel fabrication and air-conditioning units, to printing – a subsidiary company printed Variety and Billboard in the United States. Questioned about the logic of such a wide range of activities, his answer is simple – business is business.

But he has also sought to use his wealth and influence in pursuit of those things he values, chiefly education. In 1988 he set up the Puri Foundation, a charitable trust, with an initial donation of 1 million [pounds], The foundation invests in projects close to his heart, particularly involving technology and education. He strongly supports schools and the education of young people. Most recently, together with Toyota, the Puri Foundation has created an Engineering Centre at Top Valley School in Nottingham, providing training and education to young apprentices in the county. He has also made generous donations to Nottingham University, where he has been awarded the title of Special Professor in the Business School. He has also set up a Scholarship fund at this university, in commemoration of the role the National College played in his own development.

He has also been generous to political parties; although he is a well-known benefactor of the Labour Party, he has also supported Ken Clarke for the Conservative leadership, and it has even been suggested that he is watching the Liberal context with interest. This, of course, says much for his even-handedness and his adroitness. And indeed his significance for all political parties.

His dedication to India remains enormous. In 1999 he and Gulam Noon presented the President of India with a collection they had bought at auction in Sotheby's of hitherto unpublished letters from Gandhi to Maulana Abdul Bari, an Islamic scholar, leader of the Khilafat Movement (1920-22) and founder of the Jamiat-e-Ulema. This was at a time when the President Narayanan was endeavouring to encourage inter-religious understanding and in the letters Ghandi makes a passionate plea for communal friendship, something with which Nat Puri clearly identifies from his own personal experience.

Recently is has been said that his support for Indian charity is unsurpassed. He gave a million pounds to the Gujarat Earthquake appeal in 200. And he is genuinely concerned about tribal illiteracy in India, particularly the 150 million adivasi tribal people living in remote regions in India without health care and literacy. He has embarked on a project to bring education and medical care to these people and he is currently developing a higher education institution in northern India.

But cricket, especially Indian cricket, is also a great passion. Indeed he is said to have two boxes in Trent Bridge and the Indian Express, faced with a sudden dearth of tickets for the Test Matches, suggested that it was time to be even nicer to Nat than usual.

In his book the magic of Indian cricket, Mihir Bose recalls a dinner hosted in 2004 by Nat Puri in honour of the Indian team. Nat had promised £50,000 for the first Indian to get a triple century in a Test match and as the keen followers of the game here will recall, Veeru Sehwag, the unconventional batsman, became the first – with 309 against Pakistan in Multan and of course helping India to its highest ever 675 for five against Pakistan.

Gary Phillips was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2007.
Gary Phillips is Headteacher of Lilian Baylis, one of the most transformed schools in Britain. In just seven years Gary has lead a remarkable turn-around at the school that serves deeply disadvantaged communities and was once pilloried by politicians for its failures. Gary is now in demand as a speaker and commentator.

Julia Middleton was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2007.

Julia Middleton's Common Purpose brings together business leaders from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and takes them outside their comfort zones and into their local communities. With an Economics degree from the London School of Economics she cut her professional teeth in employee relations at the Industrial Society.

Garth Crooks was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2007.

In May 1981, Garth Crooks was the first black player to score in an FA Cup Final. By the time he retired from the game in 1990 he'd scored more than 200 goals. His broadcasting career began in 1982 when he joined the BBC sports team as a television pundit, and his services to Association Football were recognised in 1999 when he was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Lord Morris was made Honorary Doctor of Letters of the University in 2007.

Bill Morris is one of Britain's best known and admired trade union leaders of modern times. After years in Trade Unions, Bill became Deputy General Secretary in 1986 and then General Secretary in 1991. He was awarded the Order of Jamaica in 2002, a knighthood in 2003 and was granted a Life Peerage in 2006. He was General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union from 1992 to 2003, and the first black leader of a major British trade union. Bill sat in the House of Lords, under the Labour Party whip, from 2006 to 2020.

Gary Younge was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters of the University in 2007.

Gary Younge is a highly-respected black British author and journalist who's captivated audiences both here and in the US. He was New York correspondent and subsuquently Editor-at-large for The Guardian newspaper and a regular columnist for the respected weekly US magazine, The Nation. Gary has taught Eritrean refugees in Sudan, has studied French and Russian and has a postgraduate diploma in Newspaper Journalism. He has been newspaper journalist of the year in the Ethnic Minority Media Awards for three years running.

Sir Terence was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences of the University in 2007.

Sir Terence Conran CH RDI FCSD was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. Conran's first professional work came when he worked in the Festival of Britain (1951) on the main South Bank site. He left college to take up a job with Dennis Lennon's architectural company, which had been commissioned to make a 1/4-scale interior of a Princess Flying Boat. Conran started his own design practice in 1956 with the Summa furniture range and designing a shop for Mary Quant.

In 1964, he opened the first Habitat shop in Chelsea, London with his then wife Caroline Herbert, focusing on housewares and furniture in contemporary designs. Habitat grew into a large chain, the first retailer to bring such designs to a mass audience. Conran had a major role in the regeneration in the early 1990s of the Shad Thames area of London next to Tower Bridge that includes the Design Museum, which he founded in 1989.

Professor Miriam David has a BA (Hons), Sociology from the University of Leeds 1966;, and a PhD from the University of London 1975.

Lawrence Hadley was born in London in 1925, and evacuated to Minehead at the outbreak of the Second World War. On his return to London he became an apprentice with a mechanical engineering contractor in central London. During his apprenticeship he studied at the Borough Polytechnic between 1941 and 1946, including the heating and ventilating engineering intensive course in 1944. These courses became the foundation of the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering when it opened in 1948.
He wrote 60 years later: “I recall my main tutors then being Mr Harwood and Mr Cowan, who managed to keep our attention in spite of the regular flying bombs overhead. I don’t recall the class ever retreating to the shelters – just a quick duck under the desk.”

After completing his apprenticeship he joined Donald Smith and Partners, Consulting Engineers, the forerunner of DSSR. In a letter dated July 1946, confirming his appointment as a draughtsman, Donald Smith himself wrote: “We trust you will find your work for us congenial and can assure you that you will have ample opportunities for enlarging your experience”.

Laurie Hadley’s relationship with DSSR lasted 41 years. He was a partner for 30, and senior partner for six. He rapidly involved himself with a number of committees, sub-committees and working parties for professional institutes and learned bodies. He became a council member of the Association of Consulting Engineers, a member of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management in 1972, and later a Fellow, and became involved with a number of other engineering institutions, including the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers.

He became a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers in 1976 and was the livery company’s senior steward from 2002. In 1977 he was chairman of the National Joint Consultative Committee for Building, and in 1978 president of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. He was elected president of IHEEM for the years 1983-1985 and to the same role at the International Federation of Hospital Engineering for the years 1998-2000.
In 1986 he was awarded the OBE for services to hospital engineering, and even after retirement he continued to support professional engineers - finally stepping down from the IHEEM Journal Committee in December 2006 and the Institute’s International Committee in January 2007. He died in 2008.

Dean of Quality Initiatives and Executive Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor, 1992.

Research Professor, Faculty of Health, South Bank University

Ethelm House (Waterloo Centre) was situated on Cornwall Road and leased by South Bank University until the late 1990s. It was used as teaching space, primarily for short courses.

Edric Hall was officially opened in 1908 and was named after the Polytechnic's founding father Edric Bayley. The hall was used as a space for public lectures, examinations, and social events.
In September 1940 the Borough Polytechnic Institute was hit by German bombs, one of which went through the roof of Borough Road Building into Edric Hall. The Hall was refurbished after the Second World War and was officially opened on 1st December 1951.

103 Borough Road was purchased 1891 to provide accommodation for the Borough Polytechnic Institute, which opened on 30th September 1892. The building was extensively refurbished by Rowland Plumbe. The Victoria Gymnasium for men, St. Olave Workshops and Edric Bayley Schools comprising the physics laboratory, physics lecture theatre and school of cookery opened in December 1898.

In 1908 the Edric Hall was added to the side of the main building, providing examination and entertainment space. In the late 1920s the building was once again altered, this time by W Courtenay Le Maitre, with new floor levels and façade, and an extra storey added. The building and new facilities were officially opened by the Duke of York on 20th February 1930.

The building was hit by two bombs in the early morning of 30th September 1940, causing damage to Edric Hall and the classrooms above and below it. The building was again hit on 11th May 1941, with the bomb landing in the woodwork shop and well area behind the library and Stanley Gymnasium. Incendiary bombs fell on the nights of 16-17th April and 19-20th April 1941, but these caused minimal damage. Refurbishment and repair works were carried out post-war and completed in the 1950s. During the 1960s plans were drawn up for the Tower and Extension Blocks which adjoined Borough Road Building and were completed in 1969.

Wandsworth Road building was purpose-built to house South Bank Polytechnic's Faculty of the Built Environment and Vauxhall College of Further Education. The foundation stone was laid in 1970 and the buildings were in use by 1973, although was not officially opened until 1975. In 2003 the building was sold and has since been converted to private residential flats.

Caxton House at 13-16 Borough Road was built in the 1920s for printing union NATSOPA by E J Williams Architects of Leicester and later used by SOGAT 81. The building was purchased by South Bank Polytechnic in 1988 to house students and staff from Rachel McMillan College. In 1992 it housed the Administration Department of the Polytechnic, including the Vice-Chancellor and later housed the University's staff from the Centre for Learning Support & Development, including the Careers Centre. It currently houses staff from the Confucius Institute, following a 2015 refurbishment carried out by Rivington Street Studio.

Ingall House was built around 1870 and in 1950 became the first halls of residence used by the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering to house in dormitories up to thirty teenage recruits on full-time courses. It was named after Dr Douglas Ingall, the first Director of the National College and was located at 8 Dulwich Wood Park. The building was included in the merger that formed the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1970s and continued to provide student accommodation, though it was altered to provide 28 study bedrooms instead of the original 44. In the early 1990s the Polytechnic (now South Bank University) devised a new accommodation strategy whereby all halls of residence would be within walking distance of the Southwark campus. Consequently the University terminated the lease on Ingall House.

The Joseph Lancaster Block, Tower Block, Metal Block and Extension Block at 103 Borough Road, Southwark were officially opened on 9 July 1969 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The buildings were designed by Norman & Dawbarn Architects who also designed the Polytechnic's Turney Road sports pavilion and the BBC Television Centre at Shepherds Bush.

The Metal Block, Tower Block, Extension Block and Joseph Lancaster Block at 103 Borough Road, Southwark were officially opened on 9 July 1969 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The buildings were designed by Norman & Dawbarn Architects who also designed the Polytechnic's Turney Road sports pavilion and the BBC Television Centre at Shepherds Bush.