People in Hatherleigh paid their last respects to well-known nonagenarian Derek Sanders yesterday (Wednesday, May 20) as his funeral cortege passed through the town.

With only a private family burial possible due to the Covid-19 restrictions, people were invited instead to stand in the streets as the procession made its way from Derek’s home in Park Road down Market Street and Bridge Street to the cemetery at the Methodist church. A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Derek, who was a firefighter in the town and worked as a builder, died on Saturday, May 9 just a few days after celebrating his 95th birthday. He had underlying health conditions but did not have Covid-19. He leaves his son Paul, who lives in Hatherleigh, daughter-in-law Jenny and two grown up grandsons. Derek’s wife Mary died before him and the couple’s daughter Jane died tragically young at Christmas 1980.

Paul said: ‘Dad lived in Hatherleigh all his life, except for the years he was away in the RAF during the Second World War.

‘He loved the town and all the people in it. What people in the community will particularly remember about dad is that he would always be out in the Square if anything was going on.

‘He loved having a chinwag and a cup of tea and he used to drive up to the monument on Hatherleigh Moor park up and fall asleep! He’d also fall asleep in the car outside the Co-op in the town, while he was waiting to ambush someone for a chat!’

Paul added: ‘Father had lived in his house since I was four and I am now 61, and he died about 150 yards away from the house where he was born in Park Road.

‘He was a very independent person. He died at home, he never spent a single day in a care home and was driving up until the end of his life.’

He said his father started out working as a butcher at a shop in the Square in Hatherleigh, and was variously a builder, a farmer and a general tradesman. ‘He also grew things from seed, and would give plants to friends,’ said Paul. ‘He loved his garden.’