Ron Overd will be made Mayor of Looe at the annual town meeting in the council chamber at the Guildhall on Monday, May 15, and will succeed the two successive years of councillor Dave Bryan. A town councillor for just under a year, Ron is already a Caradon District representative and also serves on thes Town Forum.

A member of a long standing and traditional Looe family, Ron is an ex regular soldier who spent nearly 40 years in the army and claims to have come out due to his wife's fear that he was about to make a career out of it! While stationed in Weymouth in 1977 he had the pleasure of recovering the former old Looe lifeboat the Ryder, from almost certain destruction on Chesil Beach. After leaving the army he took up a post with the MOD as a civil servant, dealing mainly with housing and welfare of service families.

Twin brother

Ron and his twin brother had a soldier father who continued to serve long after they had both joined the army. He was a Somerset Light Infantryman and it was while he was stationed in Devonport that he met and married a Cornish girl from Looe. She was a member of the Toms' family of twelve children who lived in Castle Street, East Looe, and later at East Cliff. Her grandfather was the well known Topsy Toms, and Edwin, also called Topsy, along with Reg, Jim and Jack were all uncles. Ron says the legacy and joy of such a large family is the number of relatives in and around Looe.

Ron returned to Looe about seven years ago and is heavily involved with ex service charities, and is chairman of the Looe branch of the Royal British Legion. A keen follower of all things Cornish, particularly rugby, he has not missed any of the finals at Twickenham.

The mayoress will be his wife Pat, and together the couple have three children, and what they happily describe as 'a whole stack of grandkids'.

Another comparative newcomer to the council, also having served barely a year, is the choice for new deputy mayor, Wally Scarah, who is to succeed councillor Colin Shore. The deputy mayoress will be his wife Kath.