John Tarver, who has died aged 84, tended the churchyard of St George's in the village of Newbold Pacey, near Warwick, for more than 70 years and also served as bell-ringer, organ boy, churchwarden and treasurer for decades. He and his wife Pat, who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in June, lived in the same cottage in Newbold Pacey throughout their married life. Only a few months ago, John was still spending 10 hours a week working in the churchyard, which three generations of his family had tended.
John was born in the nearby village of Ashorne and began working at the church unofficially aged 11, scything the long grass with his father Thomas, a gardener (and verger, bell-ringer and gravedigger). As a boy at Wellesbourne school during the war, he went potato- and pea-picking and dug for victory on his father's allotment, keeping hens and chinchilla rabbits for the pot so that the family was almost self-sufficient. He started work aged 14 at Bromson Hall Farm, harrowing, hoeing and looking after the big carthorse. In his late 20s, he moved (for a £2 rise to £8 a week) to Wylie's, a Warwick ironmonger where he worked for 41 years, starting as a van driver and ending as manager.
He met Pat, a weaver, at a wedding in the early 1950s, pledging when they married in 1953 to share the household chores. John excelled at fruit crumbles and rabbit stews and the couple's eye-catching garden with their eight hens and a riot of flowers was proof of their green fingers.
Soon after the Suez crisis, John ended two years of national service as a sergeant at British HQ in the canal zone and successfully reorganised the army's formerly chaotic transport system there. Once home, he became hugely influential in local organisations, running the church fete and serving as vice-chairman of the parish council for nearly three decades. He and Pat were recognised for their loyal service when they were invited to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party in 2001.
John was widely admired as a quiet, shrewd man, always willing to do the vital but unglamorous jobs in the parish and a friend to anyone in trouble. He is survived by Pat and their children Peter and Margaret.
