Tributes paid to ‘charming’ former mayor of Brighton

Tributes have been paid to a former mayor of Brighton who died yesterday (Thursday 5 January).

Tehmtan Framroze, 75, came to Britain from Zanzibar in 1964 and worked at Sussex University. He served as a Labour councillor for 21 years on Brighton Borough Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council.

He lived in Coldean, the ward that he represented, before moving to Maycroft Manor, the care home in Carden Avenue, Brighton.

During his long stint as a councillor Mr Framroze chaired the Housing Committee and served as the mayor of Brighton in 1994-95.

In 2007 he became an alderman “in grateful recognition of his exceptional contribution to Hollingbury and Stanmer Ward (and) the city and in gratitude for eminent and distinguished service as a member of the council”.

He was married to Marian Framroze, a fellow librarian at Sussex University, who survives him.

One of his former council colleagues, Andy Winter, now the chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust (BHT), wrote on his blog: “I was very saddened to hear that Tehmtan Framroze has died.

“Tehm was a borough and city councillor over many years representing the Labour Party in the old Stanmer Ward. He was Mayor of Brighton in 1994-95.

“Tehm was born in Zanzibar and was a Zoroastrian by faith, two things he had in common with Freddie Mercury! He worked for many years at the library at the University of Sussex.

“During his time as a councillor, he chaired the Housing Committee and was very concerned with standards in the private rented sector.

“During his year as mayor he formally opened a BHT development of 57 homes in Hollingdean. His interest in housing remained with him throughout his life.

“The last time I saw him, in the same nursing home as my late mother-in-law, we spoke about housing and, though physically frail, his mind was as sharp as ever.

“With the late Conservative councillor, Doreen Radford, Tehm and I were members of the Film Viewing Working Party that infamously banned the film 9½ Weeks from public cinemas in Brighton.

“As chair of the working group Tehm had to defend our decision from headlines like ‘Too saucy for the seaside’ and the condemnation of Barry Norman on Film 86.

“Tehm never gave up on his passion for justice and socialism. I can still close my eyes and hear his booming voice declare: ‘Comrades, we are on the threshold of socialism.’

“Sadly, Tehm has not lived to see the day he longed for but, in his unique way, he touched many lives and made a difference.

“Towards the end of his life – the last few years were not at all easy – he was cared for diligently and bravely by Marian, his devoted wife. My thoughts are with her in her terrible loss.”

The current council leader Warren Morgan said: “Tehm was my council chamber neighbour and mentor during my first term and I have very fond memories of him.

“The city owes him a great debt of thanks for his contribution to public life, having come to this country from Zanzibar in 1964.

“He made an enormous contribution to housing, to Coldean and the city. He will be very much missed and I send my thoughts to his wife Marian and family.”

Councillor Michael Inkpin-Leissner, one of the Labour members who now represents Hollingdean and Stanmer, which includes Coldean, said: “I would like to pay tribute to Tehmtan Framroze, the former mayor and councillor in Coldean, who sadly passed away. He was an amazing man. He was a heartwarming character and always a credit to our city.”

And the former Labour MP for Hove Ivor Caplin, a fellow councillor when Brighton and Hove councils merged, said: “He was a tower of strength in the formative years of the new council.”

Another former council colleague Jean Calder said: “Tehm was a successful man, articulate and charismatic. Yet it was in the latter stages of his life that he seemed to me most admirable.

“Struck down by a terrible illness, he moved into a nursing home, by coincidence just across the corridor from my elderly mother.

“So it was, that in the last two years of my mother’s life, he was her near and kindly neighbour, as close as family.

“I had the privilege of seeing his courage and determination in the face of pain and the everyday small humiliations that illness brings.

“I witnessed his wife Marian’s devoted care and Tehm’s good humour and patience when things went wrong. I never heard him complain.

“The voice that once boomed across the Council chamber became quiet and laboured but still he laughed.

“There were times when Tehm smiled that it was hard to believe he was ill, times that his face almost shone with kindness.

“He was a man of great faith, with a rare and wonderful capacity to rise above suffering. I will miss him.”

Mr Framroze told a Sussex University exhibition on migrants and migration in 2012: “One of the driving forces which drove me to enter public service was the concept of doing good for humanity and mankind – good thoughts, good words and good deeds – and that is my cultural heritage which teaches me to be honest, helpful, kind and go out of your way to help others.

“That’s why I stood as a councillor because I wanted to put back into the community something that was coming out.

“I was particularly concerned that when I came to Britain there was an atmosphere in Britain of anti-immigrants and racial discrimination and I wanted to step out of all that and show people.

“Because the electorate that elected me was made up of 95 per cent white people, I wasn’t elected by an ethnic vote.

“So I was quite proud of offering my services and I remember at that time one politician was saying in public that the ethnic minorities were taking out of Britain and not putting back.

“I wanted to be one of those who was putting back. That’s what drove me to go into politics and when I looked at going into Parliament or local government I decided local government because you were in power. You were the administration. You could do things. In opposition you could protest only.

“And I was a councillor for 21 years.”