This obituary was written by friends of Tom Weston at Looe Rifle Club.

Tom Weston died on October 14 after a struggle with cancer, leaving his sister Bridget. He took care of Bridget whilst having a car, but eyesight problems stopped him driving for the last year or two.

Tom, who was 81, was very independent but during the last months his neighbour Robin Pengelly helped him out very frequently.

He was known locally as a stalwart of the Looe Rifle Club and, back in the 1960s, as a local businessman.

He inherited The Sweet Shop in Looe’s Fore Street together with three coaches from his father, a retired artillery officer who served in both the First and Second World Wars and travelled around the country relieving gunnery crews.

Tom’s start in the business was as a coach driver.

What attracted Tom to joining the Rifle Club?

In Tom’s own words, talking to Peter Ivey on the occasion of the club’s Centenary Celebration in 2015: ‘’I was hopeless at ball games but reasonable at archery so thought I would try shooting.

“I joined the club in 1950 at the age of 11 – five nights later I was shooting!

“It proved to be a hobby demanding self-discipline and dedication.

“It opened a new world to me and proved to be a marvellous experience.”

From those modest beginnings Tom went on to become ‘the man-to-go-to’ for technical information on firearms and black powder weapons.

According to George Withers, for a long time the club’s main administrator and Team Captain: “I reckoned to have a good working knowledge in the same field, but came to think that after 30 years working with weapons, I ‘knew nothing’ compared to Tom!

“In any relevant ‘guns and shooting’ conversation, Tom could just drop in extra, interesting, historical facts and figures on the subject’.”

George regarded Tom “as a steadfast, stalwart member of the club, a quiet, helpful man, true and generous. The club knows it owes Tom a huge debt in its history’’.

Club secretary John Martin would agree with that, too: he referred to Tom as the ‘doyen’ of the club – (most respected or prominent person in a particular field…! Tom to a T…)

Then, for those with longer memories, there was a period in the 1970s when the club was in dire financial straits: Tom was the only attendee and, generously, the only source of funds for rent, insurances and any other expenditures!

In more recent times, a story for light relief was the occasion when Tom accidentally locked himself in the range, without keys, when the club closed for the night!

But nothing deterred Tom….he struggled for hours to release the extraction fan at the target end of the range and, inevitably, followed the falling fan through the resulting large hole in the wall, performing an inelegant drop onto the land outside.

Despite being battered and bruised, a sense of responsibility asserted itself: the range had to be made secure – so this is how chairman Marcus Bowden came to be awakened by Tom in the early hours of the morning to effect safety measures…..

Tom Weston really was, as so many fellow club members have testified, a knowledgeable, generous, skilled, loyal and truly likeable man.

We can all be proud to have known him.

We also send tribute and sympathy to his loyal supporter and sister, Bridget.

The funeral was at the Bodmin Crematorium with a moving service conducted by Anita Nicholson.