Derek Miller’s many Hambledon friends will have been deeply saddened to hear that he died on May 24th at the age of 91.
He and his wife Cynthia were both much loved and respected, not least for the immense contribution that they made to community life in our village.
His daughter Janet Smith is happy for our website to share details of his funeral, to which all who knew him are very welcome.
It will take place at St Peter’s Church, Hambledon, on Wednesday June 24th. The service starts at 1.30pm followed by a burial in the churchyard at 2.30pm. Afterwards there will be refreshments at the Merry Harriers, an opportunity for his family and friends to chat and reflect on a long and active life.
With family, grandchildren and possibly even great grandchildren in attendance, and a large number of friends from Hambledon and beyond, car parking space will be at a premium. For those who can, it is worth considering arriving on foot and walking up Church Lane or the footpath through the kissing gate opposite the pub.
Derek and Cynthia moved south from their native Yorkshire in connection with his work and chose Hambledon as place to live in 1984, expecting to be a fairly temporary arrangement until his retirement. But they both grew to love our small, rural village and made it their home for the rest of their lives.
He said: “We never planned to stay here but it is such a lovely place with such lovely people that we never left”.
Derek became a Hambledon Parish Councillor and served for 16 years before stepping down in 2011. He was instrumental in putting together the council’s Parish Plan, a document that required widespread local consultation, and which set out achievable aims and ambitions of small councils. It remains a working document to this day, albeit in updated form.
For many years he edited the Hambledon Parish Magazine. He was a key member of the Hambledon Ramblers, and was in charge of arranging the longer walks. He was also a part of the small team that helped set up this Hambledon village website.
His wife Cynthia died in early 2022 at the age of 84 and was at the time the longest serving village community shop volunteer and a key member of the Wednesday Afternoon Group social gathering.
Both were active members of St Peter’s congregation and, for a long time, were regulars at the Merry Harriers with their close friends Ron and Ann Vickery, Ginge and Sue Blackman and Mic and Sylvia Coleman.
Derek and Cynthia met in their home city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, where both were working as school-leavers at the Royal Infirmary. They married after Derek’s two year’s of National Service in Japan and Singapore.
He will be greatly missed for his friendship, wise counsel and commitment to helping the village he and Cynthia settled in for a long and happy retirement.
