Sir Simon Milton was the politician's politician, the guy who cleared up the mess at Westminster City Council and transformed Boris Johnson's big ideas into practical plans. Unusually for a Thatcherite, he seems to have been universally admired and loved.
He died in 2011, tragically young, after a long battle with leukemia and is commemorated by this bust on the building he used to live in, now redeveloped behind the original facade.
The sculptor is Alan Micklethwaite, who tells me that he had considerable difficulty getting his subject's profile. He never met him in life, and nobody takes casual photos in profile, so Micklethwaite had to be creative to get the effect he wanted.
The background is filled with buildings Sir Simon knew. Over his right shoulder is the Gate of Honour at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, through which he passed to collect his degree. Behind that is the old Westminster City Hall. Over his left shoulder is the new City Hall, BoJo Central.
A charming touch is the slice of cake and chocolate eclair on his desk, reminders of his first job in the family firm, the Sharaton chain of patisseries.
Sir Simon Henry Milton (2 October 1961 – 11 April 2011) was a British Conservative politician. He lately served as London's Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning, and before that was a leader of Westminster City Council and Chairman of the Local Government Association. Milton was a director of Ian Greer Associates, a parliamentary lobbying company "with close links to the Tory party" which was at the centre of the Cash-for-questions scandal in the 1990s.
Milton was the son of Clive and Ruth Milton and was raised in Cricklewood, London. His father was one of the Jewish children rescued by the Kindertransport mission and brought to Britain in 1939. Milton was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and President of the Cambridge Union.
He started his working career in Sharaton's, his father's business, a chain of patisserie shops and bakers with about twenty shops in North London. The business was sold to Ponti's on his father's retirement.
He stood for Parliament unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party in Leicester East in the 1997 General Election.
Milton was named a Knight Bachelor in the 2006 New Year's honours list for services to local government.
With effect from 6 May 2008, Milton was appointed to the position of Senior Adviser, Planning, in the administration of London Mayor Boris Johnson. This led to his resignation as a councillor. From September 2008 he became a full-time politician as the administration's Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing policies for the built environment. In June 2009, Milton was also appointed Chief of Staff to the Mayor, with responsibility for managing the Mayoral advisors, as well as the Greater London Authority budgets and administration.
Milton was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1990. He and his partner Robert Davis, fellow Westminster Councillor and former Lord Mayor of Westminster, were together for over 20 years and entered into a civil partnership in June 2007.
He was a member of the West London Synagogue.
Milton died on 11 April 2011, after a short illness.