RogerBRUNTwho lived and worked most of his life in Accrington, Read and Whalley, died peacefully on August 5 at home in Cheltenham, aged 86.
Roger was born in London in 1938 and grew up in London and Leeds before joining the Royal Artillery for National Service where he served in the conflict in Cyprus. While in the Army he met Kate Leonard at a dance in her home city of Carlisle in 1959. On finishing National Service he studied law at Pembroke College Cambridge where he ran and played football. Kate had already become a fixture in his life. He and Kate married in October 1962 and had a short honeymoon at St Bees in Cumbria. He completed his articles with Blackburn Borough Council before joining Haworth and Nuttall solicitors, as they then were, where he rose to partner in charge of the Accrington office. He spent his whole working career living first in Accrington and later in Read and Whalley. He was a true general practitioner, working in property, crime, probate and many other areas of the law and always had a real concern for the needs and welfare of the community. He spent time as a chairman of the DHSS Review Tribunal where he was anxious to see that vulnerable people were properly supported by the State. He was deeply involved in the community and was an engaged member of a number of organisations including Round Table, helping with the popular carnival and fireworks display, Accrington Civic Trust and with Rotary International. With Rotary he had regional as well as national roles and was involved in the polio eradication programme and with fundraising that took wheelchairs to Mali. He lived his life with energy and enthusiasm, making many friends in many walks of life. He was one of those rare people who was able to make anyone he met feel listened to, interesting and important. He moved to Cheltenham after his beloved wife Kate died in 2018. He was an enthusiastic member of Rotary in that town too and right up until his death had been working on a fundraising project to buy equipment for a school in Kenya. In his later years he came to believe very passionately in the dangers of climate change and was vocal and persuasive in encouraging people to have regard to it in the way they lived their lives. He was never known to leave a light burning unnecessarily!
An only child himself, he had three children, Peter in 1964, Ian in 1967 and Helen in 1978. He took great pride in their accomplishments and in those of his two grandchildren Fiona and Alastair.
There will be a Requiem Mass at English Martyrs Church in Whalley at 10am on Thursday, August 29, before cremation at Accrington Crematorium.
Family flowers only please. Donations to any of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace or the Stroke Association.
Funeral director: Peter Regan, Hyndburn Funeral Services, Queens Road Accrington.
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