John was born in Chelsea, the youngest of three brothers, and attended Dulwich College as a teenager. When he left school he studied as an apprentice quantity surveyor with a firm in London.
When war came in 1939, he was immediately drafted into the Army. One of his first postings was helping to guard Detling Aerodrome in Kent, which was, of course, involved in the Battle of Britain! Sent overseas, he was in the Eighth Army and fought in the battle of El Alamein. Injured at Tripoli, he was sent back to GHQ in Alexandria where he met his future wife, Joyce, also in the army. John and Joyce spent 30 years living near Maidenhead when John had his quantity surveyor practice in Reading. They moved to Brightwell in 1987, with John retiring three years later.
It was then that they both became more involved in village life and worked hard on behalf of the church in Brightwell. John served on the Parochial Church Council for many years, seven of them as a churchwarden, and his wide-ranging knowledge was very helpful on many occasions. He also served for many years as a trustee of several Brightwell Charitable Trusts.
It is certainly worth recording that it was John¹s inspirational idea to stage a son-et-lumière in St Agatha's church, based on the histories of Brightwell and Sotwell, as part of the village's millennium celebrations. And, of course, we must mention his crosswords, which appeared from time to time in The Villager and were much appreciated. Yes we will miss him.
Roy Thorpe
