It is with great sadness that we report the death of Derek Tanner on Sunday, 21st November at the age of 71. His cancer spread at an alarming rate during his last days; Anne was with him when he passed away in St George’s Hospital.
Derek was a lovely person who made a great contribution to all the clubs and groups he joined. A generous man, he shared his technical nous in helping everyone with their bike problems and led many memorable rides on well thought out routes. He was Club secretary for three years, and at other times a committee member and vice-president. His outstanding organisational abilities will perhaps be most remembered for the May Day weekends (and optional extensions) that he organised for ten years, always something to look forward to as we endured the dark days of winter. His superb leadership was always good humoured and unobtrusive with great kindness.
Derek and Anne led a full and adventurous life. Their many cycle and scuba diving expeditions to far flung corners of the world were an inspiration to us all, shared with his friends in his camera, scuba, cycling and swimming clubs via ‘Tannerama’, his professional slide shows and audio-visual presentations.
He will be sorely missed by us all and our thoughts are with Anne at this difficult time.
Some club members have expressed their memories with a better turn of phrase than me so quite a few of their words appear above.
