Geoffrey Anthony Rawson (Geoff to most people) was born in Poole Dorset 73 years ago on 13 May 1936 and had been adopted as a baby. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17 starting his service on HMS Ganges and from there he followed the song and joined the Navy to see the world. At the end of his 9 year enlistment he joined Dorset Constabulary and served for many years in the Criminal Investigation Department. In those days the pay wasn’t very good and he finally handed in his resignation and took up a better paid job in the Security Industry. Geoff became a friend of Liz’s parents at their home in Fakenham and it was over a game of Scrabble that Geoff first met Liz. We’re not told if it was a seven letter word that won the day but a year later Geoff and Liz were married and that was almost 17 years ago. During their early years together Geoff and Liz enjoyed collecting antiques, mainly ceramics. Indeed one of Geoff’s first presents to Liz was a pink willow pattern coffee set. When the move to Spain was planned it was necessary to sell off most of the collection as there just wouldn’t be room in the new home. You can almost picture Angela Rippon and the Cash in Attic Team trudging around Geoff’s home – Goff would have loved it. For several years Geoff and Liz had a holiday apartment in Torrevieja and this was probably the inspiration for the move to Spain 9 years ago. It just seemed a nice place to retire. Whilst in England Geoff was a big Norwich City fan and even this past week Geoff had a heated chat with Liz’s son Clifford about the Canaries. His main hobby here in Spain has been his three dogs and a cat. Liz brought three children to the marriage but it didn’t take long for all three to be unofficially adopted by Geoff and when the 9 grandchildren came along they were their grandchildren. The same of course applies to the 2 great grandchildren as well, Geoff had a dry sense of humour and often was found laughing at his own jokes more than those who had listened. As with many men Geoff considered himself good at barbecues but many will have mixed memories of the charcoal sausages. We discussed flowers for the service and the local florists are closed on Mondays. The general consensus was that Geoff would have been quite happy with a couple of grapefruit. As Liz remembered her “mate” she recalled Geoff having said when I die I would like on my headstone - “We had a laugh” Geoff will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him.