A MEMORIAL service will be held later this month to celebrate the life of John Kirk. The retired RAF group captain died just before his 94th birthday on August 20 and was well-known as the president of Winscombe Lawn Tennis Club.

A MEMORIAL service will be held later this month to celebrate the life of John Kirk.

The retired RAF group captain died just before his 94th birthday on August 20 and was well-known as the president of Winscombe Lawn Tennis Club.

Tennis chairman Peter Hucker said: "John did a vast amount of work for the club over 40 years and he will be greatly missed by his many friends. It is no exaggeration to say his death marks the sad end of an era."

Even at the age of 93 John was a keen tennis player and continued to play twice a week.

In 2004 John was presented with an Avon Lawn Tennis Association award by the then county president Bernard Coombs.

Before retiring in 1959, John enjoyed a 30-year career with the Royal Air Force. During his service he travelled all over the world and was awarded an OBE for secret work on communications in the Balkans in the late 1940s.

The Sidcot resident's late wife Dorothy was also well known in the Weston area and wrote a column for the Weston & Somerset Mercury titled In a Sidcot Garden.

A thanksgiving service will be held at Burrington Church on October 20 at 2.30pm. His daughter Josephine Forrest and her husband Paul are planning to compile a record of his life including memories and stories from those who knew him.

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