Eulogy at a funeral service
Type of speech: eulogy
Date: March 2018
Venue: parish church
Audience: family and friends of the deceased
Speaker’s role: friend of the deceased
Length of speech: five minutes
One of my earliest memories of M is seeing him driving the toy train at the village fete with children screaming with delight in the carriages behind him.
I first made his acquaintance soon after he and his wife S arrived here from further along the coast in the mid 1990s. It might have been at a party. Perhaps on the golf course.
Whenever it was, I struck up a friendship that spanned over 20 years. I was glad to have the chance to see him a few days before his death and to exchange a few last words
I got to know him well when he became chairman of RA and I became a district councillor.
For visitors here, RA is the local residents association. There are plenty of these up and down the land. I used to chair one myself.
They can serve a very useful purpose in representing the interests of their residents. A quiet lobby behind the scenes.
But RA under Mark‘s chairmanship was anything but quiet. It was noisy, vigorous and highly effective.
M and his committee kept the authorities on their toes. He could be a little critical of the ‘unelected planners’ as he called them at times. And he didn’t always get what he wanted.
But one case he did win.
M cared about many issues. He opposed any attempt to industrialise the landscape. In particular he was concerned that an area of land adjacent to residential areas, that was designated for horticultural use, should not become an industrial estate.
There were a number of planning applications that he saw could have that effect. The one he was most incensed about was the plan to build an energy from waste plant.
He got together a task group to launch a campaign to oppose it. I had the good fortune to be included.
M led the way as we researched the internet, drafted letters, edited speeches, published cartoons, kept ourselves informed of Council procedures for speaking at planning meetings.
We made our case first to the District Council in the summer of 2010. The application was rejected unanimously.
Then we had to take it to County who are ultimately responsible for this kind of application. Who would speak this time? What would they say? We checked out the speeches, line by line. Nothing was left to chance. M masterminded it all.
The great day came and we carried the day. It was a great relief and a great sense of achievement shared by all members of the group.
If ever there was an example of the usefulness of RA it was this one. It was a vindication of everything M stood for and it was the culmination, in my view, of his effectiveness as a chairman.
M was a great person to know, great fun to be with and a great chairman to work for. A champion of our community. We shall miss him.