ONE of Penryn's best known residents and a stalwart of town affairs has died. Tom Moore, who had been taken into hospital on the eve of this year's Penryn Fair Day, was 86. Mr Moore, who like his friend and former town clerk, Eric Dawkins, was originally from Wales, loved Penryn and in 2001 was awarded the coveted Saracen Award for services to the town.

He had been actively involved in the town for more than 20 years. He was a founder member and former president of the Rotary Club and treasurer of Penryn Chamber of Commerce for ten years.

In 1980 he helped establish the town fair day which started out as a one-off project to raise funds for charity. Little did he realise how established it would become but he loved every one.

He and his late wife helped run the fair in the early days and he took over the organising of the stalls. At the first one he managed to top £1,000 and it never fell below that fig ure since.

In business in the town, Mr Moore ran a sports shop in Broad Street and was later an agent for a building socie ty. He was appointed to The Gentlemen's Club in 1972 and later awarded a life membership. The word gentlemen was later dropped and it became known as The Club.

Mr Moore was also a long serving member of the Penryn Lighting Committee and a Friend of the Penryn Samaritans for more than 20 years. He was a Justice of the Peace and a Friend of the Royal British Legion.

In his younger days he lived in the Rhondda Valley before becoming an engineer with the former Austin Motor Company. He moved to Cornwall buy ing Trevisomme on the Penryn River and later moved to Saffron Meadow and then into Broad Street where he lived until his death.

Mr Dawkins told the Packet this week that he had been a lifelong friend of Mr Moore as both were "Welsh boys".

He would be sadly missed as he had done so much for the town he had come to love and which adopted him over the years.

Mr Moore's funeral will be on Tuesday, September 27, at noon at the Methodist Church, Penryn, followed by private committal at Penmount Crematorium. Donations are for the British Diabetic Association.