Mr John Mee.
JOHN Mee, who lived on the Island for 40 years, died at his home in the Algarve on October 7, aged 90.
Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, Mr Mee was brought up and educated in Leicester and received indentures in mechanical engineering following an apprenticeship.
He volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1941 and was awarded an air engineering commission following a Bsc degree at Loughborough College, subsequently transferring to the RN Fleet Air Arm and serving with the School of Airborne Radar.
After the war he joined Parmeko Ltd, a company which his father had founded, creating and managing a research and development laboratory.
He became the first British man to resin-encapsulate iron-cored electronic components, which achieved inter-service standards approval, leading the way towards component miniaturisation.
A keen competitive yachtsman, Mr Mee moved his family to Cowes in 1961, where he joined the Island Sailing Club, serving on the committee for many years.
He became production manager at Decca Radar Company and later developed his own woodworking business in Ryde, with the help of his second wife, the well known Island soprano Jean Wadham, whom he married in 1972. He retired in 1975 and moved to Shalfleet in 1986, where he helped his wife to prepare and present regular concerts and recitals at venues all over the Island.
He was a keen clay pigeon shooter and member of the IW Gun Club, qualifying as a club coach.
He was a first-class instructor of the Royal Life Saving Society and once saved a child from drowning in the River Trent.
Mr Mee moved to the Algarve in 2001, enjoying three summers before his wife died in 2004, after a short illness.
He leaves his son, Christopher, daughter, Susan, and step-daughter, Georgina.