Aidan Turner Bishop : 1948 - 2022

Eddy Rhead writes Tuesday 27th December 2022:

'It was with great sadness that we heard this week of the death of Aidan Turner-Bishop. He died at his home in Preston, after a period of illness, aged 74.

Not only was Aidan a friend of The Modernist Society but he was a personal friend of mine for 20 years and I shall miss him very much.

I first met Aidan through The Twentieth Century Society and along with a few others he and I set up the North West group. When I left the C20 Society to help start The Modernist Society he was very supportive of our endeavours. In the photo he can be seen sporting one of our first badges on one of first events - CAMPUS. 

When we started the modernist magazine he was amongst the first contributors and continued to regularly write for us - right up until our 40th issue. 

Aidan was a constant source of information, experience and wisdom. A librarian by trade, what he didn’t know about modernist architecture wasn’t worth knowing. He was also an expert on trains, buses, motorways, Cold War infrastructure and a whole host of other, self admittedly nerdy, subjects. 

Above and beyond his factual knowledge, what made him good company was that, simply put, he was just a very, very nice man. Aidan had a keen sense of social justice and championed a host of good causes. As well as being a thoughtful individual though he also had a very cynical, dry sense of humour and he always made me laugh. He was also very good at sensing injustice and calling it out - rarely pulling any punches. 

Although born in Manchester he spent his later life in Preston and he was one of the first to highlight the magnificence of Preston Bus Station and campaigned for many years to get it listed. We owe Aidan a lot.

Its a huge cliche but we like to think of The Modernist Society and the modernist magazine as an extended family and Aidan was very much part of our family. As a group we will miss him but personally I will miss even more. Aidan was my friend and I am deeply sad at his passing.'

 Aidan is survived by his wife Marion.