Tribute: Much-loved postman dies aged 85

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FORMER postman Eric Newman has died aged 85 after a life spent serving the community.

The grandfather was involved in amateur dramatics, scouting, the Royal British Legion, charity work and organising carnivals during his life.

Mr Newman was born in Beaminster but spent his latter years in Bruton and Hereford.

More than 50 mourners attended his funeral in Salisbury with donations going to the Alzheimer’s Society.

His ashes were laid to rest in Hereford with his late wife Phyl.

Family members said that Mr Newman always described Dorset as ‘God’s Own Country’.

His family still live in the Beaminster and Bridport area, including his sister Yvonne Widger, who read a eulogy at the funeral.

When he was 17, Mr Newman volunteered for the Royal Navy and was called up three months later to serve in the Second World War.

He was based in Portsmouth during the war, minesweeping the Channel.

After the war, Mr Newman returned to West Dorset and became a postman and he also met his future wife, Phyl.

The couple went on to have two children, Deb and Mike.

Mr Newman was a community minded man who became involved in amateur dramatics in West Dorset.

The family moved to Castle Cary in Somerset before moving to nearby Bruton.

It was here that Mr Newman became involved in scouting and joined the Royal British Legion.

He went on to run the Bruton carnival for many years before the family moved to Hereford in 1969.

Mr Newman lost his wife to cancer in 1989.

He threw himself into charity work and helped raise thousands of pounds for the Spencer Bourne Trust, set up by the family of a boy who died of leukaemia.

Mr Newman was a much loved grandad, uncle and great uncle to an ever growing family which spreads across the Westcountry, including Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

As he reached his 80s, Mr Newman suffered with dementia and was registered blind.

He spent his final years in Castle View nursing home in Salisbury.