The end of the Slaughter?

And so, farewell 'young' John. Former Trustee of the Cornwall Maritime Museum, project director for Ponsharden, boat-building volunteer, former chair of the Falmouth Town Forum, tireless campaigner for Falmouth and its traffic systems, scourge of Cornwall Council, and tutor to young museum directors, John Slaughter has finally upped his sticks from the leafy glades of Carnon Downs and is heading for sunny Cardiff to support his daughter through university.

Having nothing else to do, the boatbuilding volunteers got together for a breakfast to say farewell and, being dab hands with wood and sticky-back plastic, could not resist sending him off with a model pallett truck to wile away his third retirement. His reputation with the life-sized version is the stuff of legend. It is said that his chassee through the Hold bearing lighthouse optics made Strictly Come Dancing look like a herd of buffalo; Waterlily almost moved herself when she saw him coming; and no gap was too small for him to attempt the pallet-truck triple lutz.

But that was not all. The team found an obscure certificate he had never been given: a qualification donated after a one-day course in speaking Japanese - damn him, he even remembered some of the phrases - which naturally required some Cornish sushi: a mackerel.

A few days later the Town Forum said its own farewell to John. One former chairman remarked that his email inbox would be lighter by several Gb and he could revert to his original small-capacity telephone answering machine now that John was leaving but we were reassured to know that we will be receiving regular reports on the Cardiff traffic system. It was suggested that we should arrange a twinning arrangement with the city burghers who are, as yet, innocent of what awaits them. 'That castle will have to move and who on earth had the idea of building a rugby ground just there; now about this roundabout ...'

The boatbuilding crew made another gem for John's dining table: a model of the Falmouth bollard, in both its dormant and erect state, complete with flashing lights, for this was another of John's Falmouth triumphs achieved by wearing down the Council Transport Department with relentless logic until they finally capitulated and installed Falmouth's answer to the leaning tower of Pisa. His only failure was to see the benefit of pay-on-exit at the car parks.

It is impossible not to hold John in high regard. His energy and dogged determination accompany a self-deprecating wit. Not for nothing was his house called Raffles, reflecting his years in the Far East where he installed things for Cable and Wireless and, allegedly, brough China into the modern telecommunications world. On one occasion a younger John even carried a new satellite receiver up a volcano on the back of a donkey: but that is another story which may be read in the history of C&W (naturally a copy is in the Library).

For now it is enough simply to say goodbye and thank you. John has helped to change Falmouth for the better and has been a great support and friend to me personally. I shall miss the cheery answerphone message from his vacuum cleaner and lugubrious tones on the phone when he has had, yet another, idea. For now, I have to sort out all the papers he has left me with which 'just turned up' as he was clearing out his garage.

Jonathan Griffin