Stuart had asked to be buried in the churchyard in Baginton, the village outside Coventry where he and Val had lived for over 40 years. A group of his friends from Warwick joined his local congregation for a fine service in the ancient church before the committal there.
We held our own service of commemoration in the Chapel on July 6th, to celebrate Stuart’s life and his long commitment to the Unitarians. One of his many interests was playing the clarinet and he used to play in a Clarinet Quartet that he had set up long ago under the name of the Haseley Quartet. His friends from the quartet came to play for us as a part of the celebration, and this gave much scope then for conversation and reminiscence about Stuart and Val.
Diane Rutter had prepared a lavish tea as well as a lovelyservice of prayers, hymns and readings, and we were able to go and have a few moments of quiet reflection beside the Memorial panel in the Garden where Stuart’s name has already been inscribed together with that of Cherry who died just a few weeks later.