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John Percy Ineson (G43-50) passed away peacefully on 8th March 2024, aged 90. He was husband to Diana, father to Mark and Jane and grandfather to Tom, Rory, Isabella and Archie. The funeral service is at St Edmund’s Chapel, West Suffolk Crematorium on Tuesday 2nd April at 3.00pm and afterwards at The Cadogan Arms, The Street, Ingham, Bury St Edmunds IP31 1NG.

John was in touch with the Society only a couple of months ago about his subscription for the OF Newspaper.  Prior to that he attended a mini supper gathering organised by James Ruddock-Broyd (G46-52) in July 2019 and the picture was taken at that event.

James reported at the time “The first invitee was John Ineson (G43-50) of Assington whom I had seen regularly since my mother approached him amongst 100 boys on Ipswich station on the first day of term in September 1946 asking John to “Look after little James on his first day.”.  James also reports that “John had a whole room for his memorabilia on the Boer Wars”.  He also collected Fram stuff and his lists of boys in the school photos of his time were handed to me and I tidied them up and passed them on to Archives a few years ago.”

John’s mother was a Church and he was the seed analyst director at the seed merchants W A Church (Bures) Ltd with the contemporary Church brother OFs, Brian (R50-53), Anthony (R52-56) and David (R53-60).

He was a member of Sudbury Round Table, Sudbury Philatelic Society, Sudbury Conservative Club, Hon Sec for Bures and District Agricultural Club, District Commissioner Sudbury and District Boy Scouts and West Suffolk Youth Advisory Committee.

In connection with his interest in philately he amassed a major collection of stamps and wrote a book “Paper Currency of the Anglo Boer War, 1899-1902” which is included in the Distinguished section of the website.

His involvement with scouting has led to the following tribute being posted by Colin Walker “I am very sad indeed to pass on the news of the death of my great friend in Scouting John Ineson.  John was 91 years old [he was 90]. He joined Suffolk Scouting aged 16 remaining in the County for the rest of his life.  He was a  Rover and then a Scout Leader in Bures, Suffolk where he was  one of the  first to arrange for his Group to go to camp on an international air flight. He was an early member of the Scout and Guide Stamp Club becoming its President and very  well known internationally.

He was awarded the Silver Wolf and was an International Commissioner,  very active in the return of Hungary to the Scouting family after the fall of communism. He helped found the Mafeking Museum and was responsible for the campaign to provide a  headstone for the  grave of Sergeant Major Warner Goodyear, the only Mafeking Cadet Baden-Powell ever named.  (Warner Goodyear appeared on a Mafeking ‘Blue’ stamp). 

John without question had  one of the best and widest collections of Scouting items ever assembled including pottery, stamps, postcards, cigarette cards, Baden-Powell artefacts and letters etc etc  He was a personal friend of many members of the Baden-Powell family and most generous with his time and encouragement to all with a quest for knowledge. Our thoughts are with his wife Diana and family.  He will be most sadly missed.”

David Anthony Reeve was born on 9th February 1941 at Dover Farm House in Ixworth.

David grew up on the family farm in Ixworth together with sister Janet but at an early age went to boarding school at Moreton Hall in Bury St Edmunds. He didn’t particularly enjoy Moreton Hall but from there he progressed to board at Eversley School in Southwold, and so began a life long affection with the Suffolk seaside town, only emulated by his connection with Ixworth. One of dad’s vivid childhood memories was seeing the 1953 east coast floods rise to within feet of his boarding house. Framlingham College was next and then onto Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire before coming back to Ixworth to work on the farm. David had great fondness for his days at both Framlingham and Shuttleworth, going fairly regularly to reunions over the next half century after leaving.

David came back to the farm, working with father George. Shortly after marrying Jeannie, David and his young family moved into a house in Ixworth which David had been renovating and restoring. It is the oldest house in Ixworth, would remain their home for over 50 years. Apart from Boarding Schools, Shuttleworth College, and more recently Fornham House Care Home, David lived his entire life in Ixworth.

Outside work on the farm, David invested himself in various aspects of local village and farming life, apart from YFC, he was Churchwarden and on the Church Council of the village church for many years, a Parish Councillor, and one time chair. There was also the National Farmers Union and local Conservative Association of which he was an active member.

David and his wife Jeannie had 2 children, James and Christopher, and fostered their nephew, Edward, following David’s sister, Janet, passing away when he was young. They had 7 grandchildren.

Unfortunately David spent his final few years following the pandemic with declining health, mainly due to dementia. He passed away at Fornham Care Home, near Bury St Edmunds aged 83