Tributes to Ron Chatburn

Tributes to Ron Chatburn

From the East Kent Mercury on 29/04/29.  Written by Sam Lennon.

‘He was a larger-than-life-character’

A globetrotter and magician who helped to improve the infrastructure of Dover has died aged 93. ‘Fountain of information’ Ron Chatburn, who lived in the town, visited an impressive 77 countries in his life, either for pleasure or through work

Edith Morgan, his partner for the last seven-and-a-half-years, told the Mercury: ’I can’t imagine life without him.  He filled my life like he filled everybody’s.  Ron was an incredibly witty man and a great storyteller.  He was a larger-than-life character.  If he was in a room you walked into you couldn’t ignore him.’

Mrs Morgan said was a ‘great dancer’ who was still so physically fit that he was able to walk the White Cliffs from Dover to St Margaret’s on his 92^nd and 93^rd birthdays.

Peter Sherred was a friend of Mr Chatburn.  They met at Dover District Council (DDC) when Mr Chatburn was an engineer and Mr Sherred worked in the legal services department.  They met again when they both joined the Rotary Club of South Foreland in Dover.

Mr Sherred said: ‘In the council Ron was a fountain of information regarding highways and their upkeep.  He was always more than willing to share details with our staff.  He was a very gregarious person, being involved with Rotary in particular and having a passion for music, engineering and all things Indian, to which country he made many visits and where he had many friends.  Ron was restricted by his deafness in later years but was always a great source of jokes and knowledge of the local area.  His death leaves a significant gap in the membership of the Rotary Club of South Foreland and there are many other organisations who will remember his contributions with gratitude.’

Me Chatburn grew up in Hereford but moved to Dover in September 1970 and later became the deputy borough surveyor for the then Dover Borough Council.  He drew up a programme of works to improve the infrastructure of the town.  Following reorganisation of local government in 1974, Mr Chatburn joined the successor DDC as chief engineer until he took early retirement in 1987.

During his time in Dover he played the concert organ in the Maison Dieu for community singing during the monthly mayoress’s charity dances.  He was chairman of the 3^rd Dover Scout Troop and a member of the parents’ committee of both St Martin’s School and Dover Grammar School for Boys, where all his three sons attended.

He was also chairman of the Dover History Society and a member of many other organisations such as the Royal Engineers Association, Friends of Dover Museum, Friends of Dover Castle, the Dover Society civic group, Dover Youth Theatre, Folkestone and Hythe Symphony Orchestra, Dover Chamber of Commerce, East Kent Railway, and Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.

He prepared and presented classical music programmes for hospital radio, and for more than 30 years coordinated a Classical Music appreciation group.  Mr Chatburn showed a love of magic through his membership of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, inventing tricks which have been published in America, New Zealand and the UK.

For his National Service, from 1954 to 1956, he served with the Royal Engineers and worked on building and engineering structures in Singapore and Hong Kong.  He married his wife Eve, an English radiographer in May 1960 in Edmonton, Canada, and the couple had three sons, Byron, Dean and Fraser.  Eve predeceased him.

For two years after his retirement in the 80s, Mr Chatburn worked in Lesotho, Southern Africa and became a church organist there and in Sierra Leone.  Later he worked for a Danish firm of consulting engineers in many towns in Tanzania and for the same firm in Cambodia, before working as a volunteer in Zululand, Natal, Republic of South Africa.

On a number of occasions, he drove vehicles to Romanian orphanages and to the former Yugoslavia during its civil war in the 1990s, taking aid to displaced people.  In 2000, at the age of 68 Mr Chatburn trekked to the Base Camp of Mount Everest.  The 77 countries he visited also included Russia, Tanzania, Canda, China and India.

Mr Chatburn, who died on April 4^th, lived his latter years going between his home in Dover and Mrs Morgan’s in Deal.  He wanted no funeral but a memorial is planned for noon on 27^th July, which would have been his 94^th birthday.  It will be at the Cricketers pub in River.

From the Dover Express on 23/04/26

‘Town mourns Ron Chatburn – musician, magician and chief engineer for Dover’

Ron Chatburn, the former chief engineer for Dover Borough and District Councils, has died at the age of 93.  A man of vast intellect and varied passions, he was as comfortable designing complex drainage systems as he was performing magic tricks or playing concert organs.

Born in Hereford in 1932, Ron’s early life was marked by music and engineering.  By age 12 he was deputy church organist; by age 16 he was operating railway signal boxes.

After serving with the Royal Engineers in Singapore and Hong Kong, and a stint in Western Canada, he moved to Dover in 1970. As chief engineer and later deputy borough surveyor, Ron was instrumental in modernising Dover’s infrastructure.  Following the 1974 local government reorganisation, he led the district council’s engineering department until his retirement in 1987.

However, ‘retirement’ was a loose term for Ron.  He spent the following decades working on engineering projects in Lesotho, Tanzania, Cambodia, and South Africa.  His humanitarian spirit led him to drive aid vehicles to Romanian orphanages and to Yugoslavia during the civil war.  At the age of 68 he trekked to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal, one of 77 countries he visited in his lifetime.

A pillar of Dover’s cultural life, Ron was chairman of the Dover History Society and the 3^rd Dover Scout Troop.  A gifted musician, he famously played the Maison Dieu’s concert organ for charity dances and coordinated a classical music group for over 30 years.  Even in his 90s, he remained a member of the International Brotherhood of Magician’s, inventing tricks that were published worldwide.

Ron is survived by his three sons, Byron, Dean and Fraser.  He leaves behind a legacy of public service, a reshaped Dover, and a reminder that a life well-lived is one of constant curiosity.

Wherever he found a piano, Ron played The White Cliffs of Dover.  He will be greatly missed by the many societies and communities he served.

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