JOHN PEDDER

CATALOGUE

RECORDING

SUMMARY

BORN: Lynton, Devon, 1935

LIVED: Lynton, Lynmouth

RECORDING MADE: 2001

RECORDING LENGTH: 2 hours 26 minutes

John Pedder went to West Buckland school, working in the holidays in his father's post office in Lynmouth to help pay the fees. He wanted to be a vet. Then the flood disaster changed everything, when a tree trunk smashed into the shop wall. They rescued the money and escaped through a skylight but the family suffered financially, so he went into the merchant navy instead.

He was 24 when his father died and he took over the post office. He now has seven businesses in Lynton, plus other interests, and a long-running involvement with public service. He has been town councillor and mayor, run candlelit epilogues at Countisbury church, and served on numerous committees. He is a governor and former chairman of West Buckland and a freemason. He says they do a lot of good, unremarked.

He loves fishing, but restoring his home, which they bought 38 years ago, has been the greatest antidote to his busy public life.

John Pedder died in May 2018.

Photograph by Mark J. Rattenbury