John was a real Dorset man. He was born in the village of Pulham near Sturminster Newton and attended the village school at Duntish near Buckland Newton, leaving to start work as a telephone engineer with the GPO on his 14th birthday.

John loved his job and spent all his working life with British Telecom as it had then become, apart from his National Service in the Army (attached to the RAF) where he spent two years with the Royal signals in Egypt. He rose to the rank of Assistant Executive Engineer and was particularly involved with the planning and building of new telephone exchanges. His final job before retiring at 60 was to be the Clerk of Works for the then new Ferndown telephone exchange.

He and Ruth married in 1962 at Christchurch Priory and they lived in Dorchester for the next ten years. Ruth remembers John as a dashing young man with a motorbike when they first met at the Dorchester telephone exchange. He was also a very accomplished dancer and enjoyed taking part in ballroom dancing competitions and was extremely proud of his garden which won various local awards.

John’s primary love however was his bellringing which he began at the age of 17. He rang at various places in Dorset and elsewhere and became a loyal member of the Hampreston band after moving to Ferndown in 1972. Sadly he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease some 12 years ago and this restricted his ringing more and more as time progressed. He was a very caring man with a great sense of humour and his fortitude and determination at this time was to be greatly admired. John was made an HLM of the Salisbury Diocesan Guild in 2001, an honour which he was very proud to hold.

It was a particular joy for John to see Hampreston bells rehung and retuned in 2003 and the last time he rang was on his beloved 3 in the first test ring. A quarter peal was rung prior to the funeral service with the bells open at John’s request. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him and all our thoughts are with Ruth at this time.

Mike Jasper