Councillor Graham Bass will be celebrating 20 years of working for the Croydon public as he takes up the position as Mayor of the town next year.

He was elected to represent Purley in 1992, the ward he has lived in since 1964, and held the seat for almost two decades.

As a child he went to school in Coulsdon during WWII and his memories are dominated by the sights and sounds of the battle of Britain, the horror of the Blitz and Hitler’s V1 flying bombs.

He was a gifted student and after winning a state scholarship to Cambridge to read mathematics and economcs he did two years national service in the Royal Signals in Germany.

He stayed in the borough to study at Muenster University. In 1958 he started work at Esso Petroleum, staying with the company until 1994, working almost entirely on the pioneering of commercial computer systems.

Coun Bass has been the deputy chairman of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee, and chairman of the health and social care sub-committee.

The grandfather-of-12 said: “The Mayoralty in Croydon is a tradition that is highly valued and regarded and I’m very honoured to have been selected for this privileged position.

“Croydon is a large borough with many richly varied communities. I hope to be able to use my year in office to promote and encourage those communities, and try to help bring people together to enrich the experience of life in the borough.

“And it would be wonderful if the work we do during the year could lead up to success for Croydon’s bid for city status to coincide with the Queen’s diamond jubilee, next June.”

Deputy Mayor for the year will be Councillor David Fitze.