Bradford Hall of Fame: Rudi Leavor and Kiki Dee among latest inductees

This is the sixth part of a regular series with the latest five inductees into who would be named in a Bradford Hall of Fame.

They can be people who were either born in the Bradford district, or made a huge name with an association to the city.

Why not leave your own suggestions in the comments section below, as you have done in previous weeks.

DEAN RICHARDS

The centre half, who started his career at Bradford City, also played for Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Educated at Rhodesway School and a product of Bradford Boys, Richards was a home-grown success story. He played 86 times for City before joining Wolves for £1.85 million in May 1995.

After retiring in 2005 due to ill health he returned to City in 2007 as a part-time coach.

He died aged 36 in February 2011 after a long illness.

JOHN WOOD

Bradford-born philanthropist Wood worked tirelessly to improve working conditions, in particular for children.

He persuaded Richard Oastler to take up the cause of factory children when he visited Wood’s Horton Hall home in 1830.

Wood, who was in partnership with William Walker, reduced the hours of his child mill workers to 10 in 1833 and the following year a Ten Hours Bill went through Parliament, but there were many loopholes that were not tightened until the Factories Act of 1847, also known as the Ten Hours Act, which restricted the working hours of women and young people aged 13 to 18, in textile mills to 10 hours a day.

Wood’s work as a local benefactor was extensive - in 1832, without waiting for any parliamentary recommendation, he opened a school for his factory children and took on extra employees so that children could leave their machines and attend school part-time.

In later years he moved to Hampshire where he built a chapel and school among other building projects in the area.

He died in 1871.

RUDI LEAVOR

Bradford Synagogue chairman Mr Leavor, 94, settled with his family in 1937 as part of the second wave of German Jews fleeing the Nazis when he was just 11.

After settling in Bradford, he attended Bradford Grammar School and later graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in dentistry.

In 1975 he became Cantor, as well as President and Chairman of the Bradford Reform Synagogue.

In 2017 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his work strengthening bonds between Jewish and Muslim communities in Bradford.

The great grandfather has reflected on his escape from Nazi Germany in his new memoir, My Story.

He has returned to Berlin many times over the years and has donated family artefacts to the city’s Jewish Museum.

Invited to appear in a film, The Lost Children of Berlin, he attended the LA premiere as a guest of Steven Spielberg.

KIKI DEE

The Little Horton-born singer was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown’s Tamla Records.

Former Boots in Bradford worker Dee is best known for 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart', her 1976 duet with Elton John.

Real name Pauline Matthews, the duet was her biggest hit to date and went to number one both in the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

PROFESSOR MAHENDRA PATEL

Little Horton-born Professor Mahendra Patel is a senior academic and pharmacist of national and international profile.

Within the UK he is Visiting Professor at the University of Sussex and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Bradford. He has also been appointed as the first global ambassador for the latter.

His academic and research interests largely lie in pharmacy practice, improving medicines adherence, and in health and health inequalities within the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups and deprived communities.

His career spans community practice, health education and health promotion, academia, and research. He is an elected member of the English Pharmacy Board member and subsequently became Assembly Member and Treasurer of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He has always been highly active in supporting and helping to advance research, education, science, and practice locally and overseas. His valued and far-reaching contributions to the pharmacy profession was recognised when he was awarded the prestigious Royal Pharmaceutical Society President’s Charter Award in 2016.

Internationally, Mahendra has also actively worked with the Lebanese pharmacy profession and was appointed International Honorary Ambassador by the Order of Lebanese Pharmacists (OPL). In India, he works closely with a number of pharmacy colleges and universities in various states.

He completed my pharmacy training with Boots, Darley Street in Bradford.

Those already inducted are: Marsha Singh, Chris Kamara, Trevor Foster, Barbara Castle, Tino Valdi, Adrian Moorhouse, Tasmin Archer, Dynamo, Timothy West, Javed Bashir, Fattorini Family, Ade Edmondson, Sir Ken Morrison, Ruby Bhatti, Adil Rashid, JB Priestley, Zayn Malik, Sarah Khan Bashir, Captain Sir Tom Moore, Margaret McMillan, Stuart McCall, David Hockney, Brian Noble, Sharon Beshenivsky, Jack Tordoff.