IN MEMORIAM

JUDITH (Judi) RANDALL

It is with great sadness that we record the death last month of our dear friend, Judi, who had long been a member of our Association; she served our Branch as Programme Secretary and additionally, in recent years as Vice Chairman.

Our first thoughts must be for her family to whom we extend our sympathy and offer our support in the grievous loss they have suffered.

There could be no better evidence of the esteem in which Judi was held and the very great affection felt for her, than the number of friends who gathered together at her funeral in support of her family and to remember a lady who had touched so many of our lives.

We in the 'Men of Kent' will miss her good company (she was an almost 'ever present' at our events); we will miss her contributions at the Committee table; we will miss her great sense of fun. But, very simply, like so many others, we miss a good friend.

PETER BIRCH

We were all very distressed to learn the news of Peter's death, in mid - July; your Committee and a number of our members have, of course, already written to Beryl with expressions of sympathy and support.

Peter Birch's links with our Association were probably unique in that he served on the committees of two Branches, having created one of them; he had been a long standing member of Sittingbourne Branch and indeed had been Chairman there when, in 1979, he was invited by our Head Office to establish a new Branch (which became Lynsted) by hiving of what had become something of an overload of membership at Sittingbourne.  Peter became Lynsted's first Chairman; later he was Branch President and for many years was involved in just about everything the Branch did.  He was largely responsible for the development, within our Branch of 'a priority objective' - the raising of money for charity - and we know he was very proud of the Branch's record in that field.

Beyond the Association, Peter was a man of many parts; he was a prominent businessman in Sittingbourne, a Rotarian, a keen fisherman and of course, a great husband, father and grandfather.  He will be missed by so many in so many different places. We in Lynsted Branch will miss a gentleman and a gentle man who could quite apprpriately be described as the 'father' of our Branch.