It is not a hard task before us today: to celebrate a full life lived with grace and dignity. The challenge is to describe the ninety six years of George Potter’s life in such few words. And yet that is exactly how he would have wished to be described, drawing as little attention to himself as possible. George was born in 1912 in First Tower on the island of Jersey and spent the first part of his life in the Channel Islands. Here formed several loves that lasted a lifetime – for Jersey, for steam trains and for Jersey cream cakes. A very vivid childhood memory for him was the Sunday afternoons when he and his brother Tom would go with their parents on the train along the coast to St. Helier for tea and cakes at Gaudins. When his parents moved the family back to the mainland George completed his schooling in Sussex and trained as an accountant. After the Second World War, during which medically he was restricted to the Home Guard, an opportunity came to George to enter the newspaper industry with the Brighton Evening Argus. At the time he joined the Argus it was a struggling daily evening paper with a poor circulation. And yet by his retirement it had flourished. Ambitious in his own quiet way George was steadily promoted until he was Managing Director. In an era of hostile labour relations and friction between unions and management George earned the reputation as a boss who treated everyone alike, approachable but by no means a pushover. It was at the Argus that George met the love of his life, Pauline, and a shy, private man found someone with whom he could share his world. Pauline, along with Susan and Simon, his children, and grandchildren all gathered here today, knew him as a sweet and gentle man. His patience and love were always given generously, without thought for his own comfort or need. He was a peacemaker who wanted everyone in the family to enjoy the calm that he himself walked in. Susan remembers how he helped her with her homework with great patience after long hours at the office. Simon recalls him being willing to play cricket in the garden despite coming home late from work. His grandchildren have memories of him taking them for ham, egg and chips while the ladies were out shopping. After George retired from the Evening Argus he received a great surprise in the New Years Honours List at the end of 1977. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to the newspaper industry. With typical humility this was never something that he discussed much with others but he was immensely proud to receive that award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. This was by no means the end of George’s working life. He soon found himself invited to accept a part-time position which rapidly became full time, standing for hours each day on a commuter train to London from the South Coast, despite the arthritic pains he felt. This lasted until Pauline, wishing to spare him the pain, threatened to take away all his trousers... except the ones he wore in the garden! George was a faithful member of Holy Trinity Parish Church in Hove for many years, coming under the influence there of the Reverend Willi Oelsner who brought the whole family under his wing with quiet commitment. As the People’s warden as well as in other capacities he played an active part in the church and on the Parochial Council. He was president of the Rotary Club and dedicated much time to charity work. For most of the last twenty five years of his life Suffolk was George’s home. Living first briefly in Gazeley near Newmarket and then in Elmswell he enjoyed village life. Until a few years ago he would always drive the ten miles on Sunday morning to attend Saint Mary’s in Mendlesham. He loved to drive – in younger days at considerable speed in Fords that had been doctored under the bonnet – and, like Pauline, always wanted to see what was round the next corner. They seldom took a holiday in the same place but Jersey was of course the exception. That adventurous spirit carried George, in his late eighties, along with Pauline to Brazil for Simon’s wedding to Adriana, and before that to Oklahoma where they spent three years in the American Mid West while Pauline studied at Bible College. George had considered enrolling but felt that at eighty six it would be too much to take on. He loved people and especially enjoyed the friendships he made in America. Even after returning home to Suffolk he made two more trips to the United States. On his last visit he celebrated his ninety third birthday by polishing off an enormous banana split at a favourite ice cream parlour in Oklahoma. This was George Frederick Leighton Potter, a man with a large appetite for life and a quiet determination to live it to the full. His great fortitude could be seen as he confronted those serious attacks on his health at the end of his life. Amid it all he never ceased to think first of his beloved Pauline and of his family, who will miss him greatly. George was not afraid to leave this life and was ready to forego a future birthday message from the Queen for his present audience with the King of Kings whom he loved with a quiet, steady faith.