A WELL known and popular character in Ryde has died.

Graham Adams, of Player Street, Ryde, and Woodside Hall Nursing Home, was born in a military hospital in Woolwich London on December 3, 1936.

His parents were Frederick Thomas Adams, a sergeant in the Royal Artillery, and Marguerite Adams.

Graham grew up in London and had a variety of jobs working in an ironmongers, on the railway, a gardener in a cemetery as well as a Park in Southgate and as a builders labourer.

He also worked in the projection room of a cinema where he developed a love of films.

Graham moved to the IW in 1975, where he met and married Olive, an accounts clerk.

He had various jobs in Ryde, working as a storeman in Internationals Supermarket, and as a cleaner at Britten Norman and at Ryde School.

They both enjoyed playing bowls and were members of the bowls club in Ryde. They also shared a love of animals. They had no children.

Graham was a well known and popular character around Ryde who enjoyed chatting to people he met and amusing them with his jokes, anecdotes and even impressions of Winston Churchill or Laurel and Hardy. He had a great sense of humour.

He got to know many of the shop workers on his daily visits to the town. Graham was a kind and gentle man who will be greatly missed.

A funeral service will be held on Friday, July 6, at 12 midday, at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Ryde, followed by a burial at Ashey Cemetery at 1.30pm.

A collection will be made for the IW Donkey Sanctuary.