It is my sad duty to inform you of the passing of North Somerset club member Pete Jefferies.
He died peacefully in hospital on 14th May after having a fall in a shop while out collecting his newspaper on May 12th.
The funeral will be taking place at the Bristol South Crematorium on Friday 25th June at 11.15. If all goes well with the lifting of Covid restrictions on the 21st, there should be no limit to the numbers able to attend.
Pete had been unwell for a number of years with a lung respiratory condition which meant he was constantly on oxygen, hence the reason we hadn't seen much of him even before the Covid pandemic. I did pay him several visits at his flat in Withywood in Bristol (pre-Covid) when he wasn't able to come to us, and I was generally there for a couple of hours and usually came away with a car full of empty boxes of the model kits he had built in between visits.
Pete was a real character. We spent many hours talking about Formula One racing and classic cars, and Pete shared his fond memories of the period when he owned a 3 litre Reliant Scimitar. He was a bit of a boy racer on 4 wheels and 2 wheels in his younger days, and in later life often came to a Sunday meeting at The Helicopter Museum on his moped, all the way from Bristol. Who could forget that crash helmet with the RAF Roundel on the back!
Pete was a prolific modeller and, like most of us, he built a wide range of kits, but predominantly aircraft and, as far as I am aware, exclusively in 1/72 scale. If you visited his 1st floor maisonette, just inside the door at the bottom of the stairs there were shelves filled with armour and airfield vehicle models, halfway up the stairs were shelves with the World War 2 aircraft and airfield dioramas, and then you arrived at the top! Pete's first loves in model-making were prototype, training & NASA aircraft, and aerobatic display teams. There were cabinets filled with them at the top of the stairs and in the lounge. The coffee table was always buried underneath a pile of his ongoing build projects, reference books were everywhere, and he generally had to clear a space on the sofa for guests to sit down! Even some of the cupboards in the Kitchen contained built and unbuilt kits and one of the bedrooms was entirely given over kits yet to be built - floor to ceiling!
Pete had been a member of North Somerset for more years than I can remember, probably about 20(?). I think he also retained 'dual membership' with Avon IPMS Branch and was a long-standing IPMS (UK) member. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him, and and I sure you will join me in wishing him to Rest in Peace.
Fred.
