TRIBUTES were paid this week, following the death of David Gordon, the co-founder of Whitchurch Wayfarers Cricket Club, who had a great affection for the club and the West Devon area.

Mr Gordon died in Bristol on January 27, aged 84. He leaves a widow Caroline, five children — Andrew, Joanne, Michael, Tom and Elinor — and five grandchildren.

Mr Gordon was the son of Gerald Gordon MC and Marjorie Beaver, of Whitchurch House, and was born in 1927.

Related to the famous 'General Gordon of Khartoum' Mr Gordon was commissioned into the Gordon Highlanders. He finished his military service as a captain in charge of a large number of Holocaust survivors in Cyprus, who were trying to enter Palestine.

Following study at King's College, Cambridge, he spent a year at the Sorbonne University in Paris but after the death of his stepfather, Noel Beaver, he returned to Whitchurch House in 1949.

In 1949/50 as a keen cricketer he, along with his half-brother Martin Beaver, decided to try to establish a cricket club on a field of the grounds of Whitchurch House. From very modest beginnings the Wayfarers developed into a successful club with a new pavilion and a long fixture list for several sides — men, ladies and juniors.  

Mr Gordon took over farming at Whitchurch House and farmed at Tuxton Farm, Plympton, as well as a considerable acreage near Two Bridges leased from the Duchy of Cornwall.

Mr Beaver said: 'He later moved to Clifton, Bristol, but retained a strong interest in Whitchurch Wayfarers and was present when the club celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2010.

'He frequently came back to Whitchurch and to Dartmoor and never lost his love for the area.'

Gavin Hall, chairman of Whitchurch Wayfarers Cricket Club, spoke for all members when he told the Times: 'David's hard work all those years ago, creating our ground from what was an agricultural field at the time, is a legacy of which he and his family can always be proud. 

'We have lost a founder member, but most importantly a friend of the club.  Our condolences go out to all his family.'