Pete was a lifelong member of Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club, joining the former Wimbledon Athletic Club in the early 1960’s. He was Hercules Wimbledon president from 1983 to 1985. When Hercules AC and Wimbledon AC merged in September 1967 to form the present club, Pete, who had been cross country secretary at Wimbledon, continued in that role in the joint club, for 50 years until he stood down in 2017. He also produced a twice-weekly newsletter and went to the club twice a week to help out.

His involvement in our sport stretched well beyond his club. He has helped Surrey County Athletic Association, compiling their senior men’s and women’s rankings for six years until his health prevented him from continuing. In recent years he helped man the gate at county track and field championships and he was honoured to serve as president in 2016.

He was involved with the South of the Thames Cross-Country Association serving as their president in the 1984/1985 season. He was also a founder of the Wimbledon Common parkrun in January 2007 and, almost without fail, would be up on the common every Saturday morning to help out.

As a dedicated athletics volunteer he was recognised by the Queen with the award of the British Empire Medal for services to athletics in 2015. Ironically, he almost missed out on the honour as he thought the official letter from the Cabinet Office was a tax demand. He initially declined to open the envelope. It was only when the Cabinet Office called him to see whether he had received the letter that he realised what it was. His volunteering was also recognised at the England Athletics London Region Awards in November 2014.

He was no mean athlete either. He ran the London marathon several times and in 1969 was a member of the Hercules Wimbledon’s winning Southern 12-stage road relay team. He was also member of the winning Hercules Wimbledon team which won the Surrey road relay titles at Woking in 1968 and 1969. He had a best three miles time of 14 minutes 10.4 seconds set in the Surrey championships at Motspur Park in 1968 which equates to a respectable 14 minutes over 5000m.

Just over two years ago Pete was found to be suffering from kidney failure. Since then he has been having dialysis three times a week. He became increasingly immobile. He was confined to a wheelchair and used a zimmer frame in his final years but was encouraged to attend and transported to events by his supportive Hercules Wimbledon clubmates. Just over a month ago, he suffered a fall which resulted in his breaking his hip. Unfortunately he contracted Coronavirus in hospital after undergoing surgery.