ANOTHER good friend has gone. Edna White was a charming and interesting raconteur and I always enjoyed my visits to the cottage in St Marychurch where she lived such a happy life with her little dog.

I last met her not so long ago while having lunch at Torquay Museum of which she was so proud. She looked a little frail but in very good humour. It is sad to know her vast knowledge and wisdom about her home town has come to an end.

Edna was a joy to talk to and whenever she rang to say 'Lincoln, I have something to tell you' I knew it would be interesting.

Her memories of St Marychurch have been recorded in two large volumes and she was always digging into history and bringing up fresh nuggets.

Sometimes I was able to help by publicising her search for stories from the past. One I remember particularly was the Book of Remembrance she compiled as a tribute to the 144 men from St Marychurch who lost their lives in the 1939-45 war.

My articles brought her several new contacts and her completed dossier is a moving record of courage and sacrifice, with photographs, memorabilia and a poem, written in memory of a pilot officer from Watcombe who was shot down over Malta:

An aircraft is missing, bleak statistic, bleak end

Yet from his spring to my autumn

I have mourned a friend.

Goodbye Edna. You will be missed.