Architect Eric Franklin's favourite project was restoring the bomb-ravaged great hall of the Wills Memorial Building.

During his 40-year-long career, he worked on many other buildings and restorations throughout the city.

Now Eric, 89, has been nominated for a Bristol University Centenary Degree.

Four of the special degrees will be bestowed by the university on July 15 to honour individuals who have given extraordinary service to their community.

Eric served throughout the Second World War in the Royal Artillery.

When he returned to Bristol at the end of the war, he joined the architect Sir George Oatley at Oatley and Brentnall, and eventually became a partner.

He did a lot of work on Bristol University buildings, including the medical school, the Queen's Building and Senate House, but he says his biggest achievement was restoring the great hall in the Wills Memorial Building.

"It was my most exciting experience, it took a lot of research and hard work," said Eric, who now lives in Henleaze. The building was shattered in the Second World War, having only been completed in 1925 by Sir George, and left as a shell with a temporary corrugated-iron roof.

Eric began work on it in 1959 with a team of builders including two of the men who had worked on the original build, and it took three years.

He became disillusioned with modern architecture and dedicated the latter half of his career to restoring churches in the Bristol area.

He was commissioned by English Heritage to advise on Grant Aid for churches and was also in charge of the rebuilding of Redland Park Church.

He was architect to Bristol Cathedral, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol Cathedral School, Redland High School, the Clifton Suspension Bridge Trustees and consultant architect to the South West Regional Hospital Board.

He became President of Avonmouth Rotary Club, and as a Bristol Savage since 1966, served as committee secretary and chairman and is an honorary life member. He has also been secretary of Beresford Lawn Tennis Club which became Kings LTC.

Eric said: "I'm very excited to have been nominated. I had wanted to be an architect since the age of four, and I had a very enjoyable career."

To nominate someone for a Centenary Degree, you can send us an email.