Alexander Valentine

Sir Alexander (Alec) Balmain Bruce Valentine (22 December 1899 – 1 December 1977), was Chairman of the London Transport Executive from 1959 to 1963 and Chairman of the London Transport Board from 1963 to 1965.

Family Valentine was born in Stockport, the son of Mr & Mrs Milward Valentine and grandson of Scottish theologian Alexander Balmain Bruce. He was also a member of the London Plan Working Party between 1946 and 1948 which led planning for new transport routes in the capital including the Victoria line built in the 1960s and 1970s. He served on the LTE board until 1954 when he moved to the board of the LTE's parent, the British Transport Commission (BTC).

In 1959, while remaining a member of the BTC board, he returned to the LTE as its chairman and remained in that position until the LTE was abolished and replaced with the London Transport Board of which he was also chairman until he retired in 1965.

Valentine was a keen bird-watcher and walker, and, taking his pen-name from a British wild bird, he wrote articles on country walks as Fieldfare in the Evening News during the 1930s. A collection of these was published as Tramping Round London in 1933.