Obituary – Albert John Brenson

Operator and coach preservationist, John Brenson, died in Basildon Hospital on 30 October after a short illness. He was 88.

John Brenson with one of the coaches he restored

Born Albert John Pratt but always known as John, he was the second son of Harry and Marjorie Pratt. Hailing from Rayleigh in Essex, his father moved to Brentwood and worked for the City Coach Company which was nationalised in 1953, subsequently becoming part of Eastern National. From this John developed a lifelong interest in City Coach Co, collecting related pictures and memorabilia.

Leaving school at 14, John worked at a bakers and later had a bread round before National Service from 1954 to 1956 in Egypt with the Royal Norfolk Regiment, his mother’s side of the family having originally lived in Coltishall, Norfolk. He returned to a bread round and then a milk round before running a coal business. In 1959, he jointly started County Coaches with his elder brother Arthur Robert Pratt, known as Jim, who had also worked for City Coach Co. In 1971 John purchased WHM Brentwood trading as Brentwood Coaches from Roy Eyerscott at LeRoy Coaches thereafter Jim traded as County Coaches and John as Brentwood Coaches out of the same yard in Wash Road, Brentwood, with the coal business passing to a friend. Both were built up and one stage Brentwood had 30 coaches and County a further 15 involved in school contracts, works contracts and club work as well as private hire and tours.

During the 1970s John met Carol Brenson, adopting her surname in the mid-1980s and staying happily together until her death in 2022. Of John’s four sons, Brian, Jonathan, Roger and Terry, only Roger didn’t join the business and today the seven-coach Brentwood fleet is run by Brian and Terry. County Coaches closed in 2017.

One of John’s favourite coaches was this Beadle bodied Commer now owned and rallied by Roger Burdett

Though he was very active in the business up to the early 2000s and maintained a presence thereafter, John became increasingly interested in coach preservation from the late 1980s, undertaking very major rebuilds of early post-war coaches and attending rallies with them. In two cases, he took chassis and fitted them with bodies that had previously been on other chassis. His son Jonathan recalls: “At one time there were 14 under cover and others in various conditions outside. One year we took ten coaches to Showbus at Duxford.”

Some of the coaches he restored are still owned by the family while others are to be seen with leading preservationists.

Of his father, Jonathan said: “Driving was his life. He had to surrender his licence in May this year and he was lost.”

He leaves four sons and ten grandchildren.

The funeral will be on 26 November 11.30am at Bentley Crematorium, Ongar Road, Pilgrim’s Hatch, Brentwood, CM15 9RZ.