Obituary: Former mayor who 'spoke up for people' dies aged 88

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In the days before his death, Terry Easter was transferred to a hospital ward he had opened himself when he was mayor of Great Yarmouth.

One of the doctors at the James Paget in Gorleston took a photo of the plaque on the wall commemorating the event and showed it to Mr Easter.

It was an emotional moment, as the former councillor, who had been living with dementia for four years, briefly recognised the legacy he had left in the borough.

Mr Easter, who was a member of Great Yarmouth Borough Council for 30 years, has died at the age of 88.

A plaque on a wall at the James Paget hospital commemorating the opening of a ward in 2009.(Image: Supplied)

He was born in Oulton Broad on March 31, 1937. One of five boys, he attended grammar school in Lowestoft - a rarity in those days for a person from his background.

But when family finances allowed only one of the brothers, the eldest, to pursue further education, Mr Easter had to leave school at 16 and take up a printing apprenticeship at Clowes in Beccles.

At 18 he was called up for national service to the RAF, but his dreams of an exotic stint in east Asia were dashed when instead he was posted much closer to home to Horsham St Faith outside Norwich.

And instead of taking to the air, he ended up working in the underground radar station.

In his later years he often remarked on the irony.

Once his conscription had finished, Mr Easter returned to the printing business and soon set out on his journey into politics when he signed up as a union rep, then joined the Labour Party.

It was while socialising at the party's club in Great Yarmouth he met his second wife, Jenny.

Terry Easter with his wife Jenny, who he met at an event at the Great Yarmouth Labour Party club.(Image: Supplied)

Mr Easter already had three daughters from a previous marriage. With Jenny, he went on to have a fourth daughter, and all the siblings lived together in a blended family.

He was elected as a borough councillor in 1981 and was mayor of Great Yarmouth from 2008 to 2009.

"He was so proud. It was a very full on year, with three to four events every day," his daughter Gaynor Read said.

Among other engagements, he oversaw the annual switching on of Christmas, the 800th anniversary of the granting of a freedom charter to the borough by King John, and he officially opened Starbucks in Market Gates.

Of all his work at the council, he was most proud of his role in the seven-year battle to get an all-weather track at Wellesley Recreation Ground.

Ms Read said her father was drawn to local politics so that he could "speak up for people who couldn't speak up for themselves".

"He liked to think everything should be fair. He wanted to be a voice for those who did not have confidence," she said.

Former mayor of Great Yarmouth Terry Easter, pictured at the Wellesley Road Recreation Ground, in 2008.(Image: Archant © 2008)

While council meetings absorbed many of his nights, by day he enjoyed a varied career. He worked as a manager first at Woolworths in Great Yarmouth and then KFC in Beccles.

He was also the printer for Great Yarmouth Art College until it closed in 1989 and then took his expertise to Norwich University of the Arts.

Away from work and late-night council meetings, Mr Easter loved sport, especially cricket and darts, and was rumoured to have enjoyed the pole vault as a young man.

And even though travelling on ferries made him queasy, he loved racing boats on Oulton Broad. It was the focus, and having so much to do, which held back the seasickness, he said.

He was diagnosed with dementia during Covid and died at the James Paget Hospital on September 15.

Mr Easter's funeral will take place on Monday, October 6, at Gorleston crematorium.

It will be family flowers only, and the deceased's chosen charity is Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Memory Club.