the times | Saturday November 14 2020 1GM 85
Readers’ Lives
council, where he embraced what he
described as “the mood of postwar
Britain... to make the country a
better place”. After reconstruction in
the bombed-out areas of the East
End, his career would take him from
Bolton in Greater Manchester to
assignments across developing
countries. In Sudan he was involved
in the Rahad project, resettling
100,000 people when water from theUpbeat town planner who became chief commoner for London
Blue Nile was diverted to irrigate
newly developed agricultural land. In
Saudi Arabia he uncovered the
pilgrimage route from Baghdad to
Mecca, and in Egypt he advised on
the reconstruction of the port and
city in Port Said.
Michael was born in 1930 in
Hornsey, north London, to William,
who worked for Dr Barnardo’s in the
East End, and Molly (née Robson), a
teacher. A born and bred Londoner,
he lived for 40 years in a four-storey
house in Hampstead that backed on
to the heath. The bustle and diversity
of the city appealed to him — he
knew the best place to stand on every
Tube platform for a quick exit — and
after Highgate School and National
Service in the Royal Artillery he went
on to study architecture at University
College London (UCL).
At a student union dance he met
Alison Hopkins. She was a
dressmaker for Worth in Conduit
Street, and after her work they would
nip round the corner for a pasta
dinner in Soho. They married
in 1956 and had three children: Julian,
a civil engineer; William, a projectmanager for Transport for London;
and Katherine, a business analyst.
After UCL Michael’s first position
was in an architectural practice in
Doughty Street, but he was drawn to
town planning because “it covers
social and political matters as well as
environmental and design”. He went
to evening classes at UCL and joined
the Royal Town Planning Institute,
of which he later became president.
At London county council he grew
to know Graeme Shankland and
Oliver Cox, and when they left to
form Shankland Cox Partnership,
their planning consultancy, he joined
them, becoming a director in 1972.
After assignments abroad he
concentrated on 1980s and 1990s
British projects including
environmental assessments for the
Channel Tunnel and its rail link,
Heathrow Express, Terminal 5 and
the East Coast Main Line. In 1995 he
became master of the Worshipful
Company of Chartered Architects.
When Alison died in 2002 Michael
sold the house in Hampstead and
shared a flat in Belsize Park with
Maggie Holtom, a long-term friendwhose spouse had also died. Eager for
a new direction, he put himself up for
election as a councilman for the
Billingsgate ward for the City of
London Corporation. He served on
several committees, but it was his
chairmanship of the planning and
transportation committee, overseeing
constructions such as the
“Cheesegrater” in Leadenhall Street,
that drew best on his experience. In
2013 he was appointed MBE and four
years later became chief commoner,
working alongside the lord mayor.
The livery dinners and formal City
functions appealed to his sociable
temperament.
Closer to home he was chairman of
the City of London Corporation’s
Hampstead Heath committee, and
successfully faced down the outcry
over the 2016 reinforcement of the
heath’s ponds to avoid risk of flooding.
His sense of humour — his
grandchildren called him Grandpa
Funny — and enthusiasm for
projects, including parties, never
abated, and he relished the planning
of his 90th birthday lunch at the
Goring Hotel in Belgravia.When the planning consultant
Michael Welbank was asked by
Unesco in the 1960s to look into the
conservation of the area around the
Sphinx in Cairo, he told his driver to
take him up a nearby hill so he could
better examine it with binoculars.
Within minutes they found
themselves looking down the rifles of
a group of armed soldiers from a
Russian military zone and led away.
He learnt later that neither his
teenage driver nor guard could read
and had missed the trespassing signs.
Confined to a room in the Russian
barracks, it would be nearly a week
before Michael was released and the
officers were satisfied that he was not
a spy. The meals, he reported,
comprised black bread, smoked
sausage and vodka.
Notwithstanding incarceration in
Egypt, Michael was known for
approaching his assignments with
boundless enthusiasm. One of his
early positions was in the planning
department of the London county
Michael Welbank, 90
Michael Welbank worked in planning
for the City of London Corporationmodernist architect Patrick Gwynne,
where they would remain for the rest
of their lives.
Anne had an ability to oversee
every area of the business tirelessly.
She would correct the designs and the
fit of new styles and ensure that the
production was perfect. She was
known to walk through the
47,000 sq ft warehouse in Hendon in
northwest London with thousands of
clothes awaiting dispatch and spot the
single example where the hems were
uneven or it needed re-pressing.
While she was a stickler for
perfection, she was respected by
everyone who worked with her.
In 1960 Anne and Max accepted an
offer to sell the company to
Selincourt, the fashion,
manufacturing and retailing
conglomerate. In 1984 the family
were able to buy back the business
from Selincourt and relaunch as
Frank Usher Holdings on the
alternative investment market, and
later on the full stock market.
Instead of retiring from the
business, the Bruhs decided to
continue to build it, creating new
products: Frank Usher leisurewear,
occasion daywear, knitwear, beaded
sweaters and evening separates.
Max died in 1994, and on the same
day Anne received the Standard
Chartered Bank award for leading
businesswoman of the year. She
continued in her role in the company,
assisted by her sons, until 2001.
In 2003 Anne met Silas Krendel
while playing bridge. Silas had just
retired as a solicitor in the City, and
they had a close relationship until his
death in 2017. Anne suffered chronic
back pain and her health began to fail
after breaking her hip. She is survived
by Stephen, Robert and six
grandchildren as well as two
great-grandchildren.
Anne loved to travel and enjoyed
art and the opera. At the age of 92
she still had two seats at the Royal
Opera House and delighted in taking
the grandchildren with her for an
evening out.Anne Bruh with her husband, Max, who managed the customers and
the accounts. Left, sequinned dresses are a hallmark of the brandWhen Frank Usher’s design director
Anne Bruh and her team were seen
approaching the sales stand at the
Premier Vision exhibition, the
international fashion and textile show
in Paris, the salesmen would jump
into action.
Anne was highly respected for her
relentless search for the fabrics that
would set Frank Usher occasion-wear
designs at the forefront of the
industry. Together with her husband,
Max, they created Frank Usher, a
fashion label that was sold in
department stores around the world,
including Saks Fifth Avenue in New
York, and Harrods, Selfridges and
Dickins and Jones in London. The
brand is known for its contemporary
day-to-dinner collections and its
well-priced couture-style women’s
evening wear, especially long,
figure-hugging sequinned dresses in
an array of colours.
Anne Jacoby was born in Elberfeld,
near Düsseldorf in Germany, in 1922
to Kurt and Kaethe. She had an elder
sister, Lotte, and a younger brother,
Hans. Her parents were an
established German Jewish family
with a successful clothing business
in Berlin.
Anne was planning a career in
chemistry and a degree at university
in Berlin when at the outbreak of the
Second World War she and her family
Perfectionist
head of the
fashion house
Frank Usher
had to flee Germany. She was
separated from her parents and
after six months in an interim
camp in the Netherlands she
arrived in England, where her
father had business contacts,
without money and with
little English.
Anne was given a
secretarial job as a
German speaker at
offices of the Swan Mill
Paper company in
Woolwich, southeast
London. She was late for
her first morning, and
when reprimanded by
the director she confessed
that she had no idea where
Woolwich was, and had got
lost on the Tube on the
way. From that day on Anne
would never be late for an
appointment, and she made
sure that her subsequent
employees also knew never to
be late.
After two years in Woolwich,
she was employed in London by
the Demolition and Construction
Co, one of the companies that was
secretly building the temporary
portable Mulberry harbours for the
war, and her managing director
brought her to government
planning meetings as his PA.
Anne had a brief marriage in 1941,
but separated after six months. In
1945 she married Max Bruh, whoAnne Bruh, 97
was 17 years her elder and
had also fled Germany in- Max was the export
sales director for
Friedländer and Zaduck, a
Berlin fashion house. With
a friend, he set up a
business in London,
acquiring the name Frank
Usher along with the
rationing coupons that were
needed during the war to buy
fabrics.
Anne joined the business in
1949, having given birth to two
sons, Stephen and Robert, who
went on to work for Frank
Usher. She was quick to learn
and had inherent good taste
and design sense. She also
understood what women
wanted to wear, and what would
flatter them while acknowledging key
trends. Anne soon took over the
management of the design and
production while Max looked after
the customers and the accounts.
Frank Usher became an institution
in the clothing business, and twice a
year held fashion-show presentations
of the collection in the showrooms in
the West End of London. As an
international brand, the company had
representatives around the world who
would be invited to view the
collections at a “teach-in” followed by
dinner at the Bruhs’ house for 15
people, for which Anne cooked roast
beef and Max carved it.
In the 1960s they built a house
overlooking Hampstead Heath in
north London, designed by theRemembering loved ones
If you would like to commemorate
the life of a relative, friend or
colleague, call 020 7782 5583 to
discuss the content and cost, or
email: [email protected].
thetimes.co.uk/static/terms-and-conditions