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Tribute to Bramwell And Chris Lane PDF Print E-mail
People
Written by Gloucestershire Constabulary   
Saturday, 28 July 2007 10:57
People throughout the Tewkesbury area are paying tribute to the father and son who ‘would do anything for anybody’ and tragically lost their lives while pumping out water from the town’s flood-damaged rugby club.

Bramwell and Chris Lane were found in the building by firefighters early yesterday morning.

Chris Lane and his mother Carol LaneIt is a double tragedy for Carol Lane who is now mourning the loss of both her only child and her ex-husband.

Explaining how her 64-year-old former husband had always been quick to step in whenever anything needed doing at the club, Mrs Lane said: “When I heard there’d been an incident at the club I knew it would be Bram. He was always there if anybody needed him, he would have been straight down there clearing up, as he was when they had a spate of vandalism incidents. But I didn’t know it would be Chris too.”

Imagining how her son, 27, came to be there too, she added: “He was like his father, he’d do anything for anybody as well. He would probably have moaned about it first but he still did it.”

Bramwell, known to everyone as Bram, was born and brought up in the North of England where his parents were captains in the Salvation Army. They named their son after William Bramwell Booth, one of the Salvation Army’s early generals.

After leaving school Bram followed in his father’s footsteps and became an accountant. It was when he took over his father’s job at a Cheshire firm that he met Carol who was also working there as an accountant.

The couple married in 1971 and moved to Manchester when Bram took a post at Linotype Machinery. They then moved to Gloucestershire after he became impressed with the firm’s former Cheltenham offices during a visit and applied for a job there.

They lived in Kemerton, near Bredon, until their divorce about eight years ago and it was there that Chris was born. Bram then moved to Walton Cardiff.

Tewkesbury Rugby Football Club became the main focus of Bram’s attention during his retirement.

“It took over his life”, Carol said. “When we lived in Manchester his passion was always Manchester City Football Club and he was keen on amateur dramatics and operatics when we lived there but the rugby club became a very significant part of his life.

“He hardly ever played as he was as blind as a bat but he was manager and accountant and he’d be the one behind the bar and receiving the deliveries. He was the one behind the lottery grant which meant they could build an extension.

“He was quite quiet and just got on with things, that’s why he was always there for other people.”

Remembering her younger brother, Sylvia Stubbs said: “He was a very gentle person and very easy to get on with so he had a lot of friends. He was a lovely man. He often came to visit me in Edinburgh where he always enjoyed watching the rugby internationals.”

Chris went to Overbury junior school and then to St Edward’s in Cheltenham. Leaving after taking his GCSEs, he worked as an engineer with an Ashurch company before becoming an engineer with Severn Trent in Staverton.

Carol said: “He was quite quiet too but he had a wicked sense of humour since he was a little child. He was always very good with his hands and with people and he enjoyed his job with Severn Trent. He was a private person but he liked socialising and enjoyed going off to watch drag racing with his friends.”

Paying tribute to one of his oldest and best friends, Robbie Atwell, 25, said: “He was the kind of guy who’d do anything to help anyone. As children we spent all summer together running around the fields and when we were a bit older and he got a car we’d be out all the time. He was the kind of person you’d never want to lose touch with. He was always there for me and I thought he always would be.”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 May 2008 11:48
 
 

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