Reg Jebbitt

[Stentor]

I am sad to announce that Reg Jebbitt has died aged 85 after a short illness.

Reg was a LSWR and SR modeller and an active club member. He was Club Secretary of the Wimbledon Model Railway Club for many years throughout the 1970s and 80s.

After he and Sheila retired and moved to Winterbourne Earls in 1995, he joined the Swanage Preservation Society and the Pewsey Vale Railway Society where he was responsible for editing and producing their monthly newsletter.

The service at Salisbury Crematorium on the 28^thJune was well attended and a collection was taken for the Heritage Coaches Appeal at Swanage.

Reg’s life’s work was his layout which portrayed the LSWR mainline from Waterloo to Woking and he will be sadly missed by all those who had enjoyed running sessions on the layout always generously refreshed by Reg’s excellent home brewed beer with an accompaniment of plenty of good jokes and laughter.

Goodbye Reg, R.I.P. 

 

Simon

[Stentor]

Harry Marshall, a good friend of both Reg Jebbitt and myself, asked me to add his own memories of Reg.

 

 

I first met Reg. on walking into the then upstairs Clubroom at the church near St. Helier roundabout for the first time, and was absorbed into the Club from that moment on.

 

He and I became friends as a result of working together on the then current Southern layout, and we continued to assist each other with various projects both in and outside the Club orbit.

 

I had a little to do with his layout in the loft, and he very kindly did some painting of wagons for me. All nine of those wagons are still running on my present layout at home. I also have two kit-built coaches that he put together and painted. They appear on my “South Dorset” layout when that is shown, and I am now very proud to have such keepsakes of him.

 

Reg. and “Steve” Stratten were the driving forces within Wimbledon Model Railway Club for many years, and the Club is very much in their debt in consequence. They had both moved ‘out of orbit’ before the move to the address in Sutton, the passing years having brought about changes in their circumstances.

 

My wife and I had the pleasure of his company with Sheila to a number of railway sites, as well as social events such as their son’s wedding.

 

My wife had the experience of helping with the catering at the Club shows held at the Church hall, subsequently deployed again for Weymouth M.R.A.

 

We still remember with gratitude their assistance when we moved to Dorchester, over twenty years ago.

 

For various reasons we have not been in touch so much recently, but I felt that I should come to say farewell to a much appreciated friend both on a personal basis, and also as the Life President of Wimbledon Model Railway Club, which he served as secretary for many years.

 

Harry Marshall.