Fred Luckraft, our oldest member, has died at the age of 93 on 27th April 2019. 

With his rich bass voice Fred was a fully active member to the last, always first
in line - ahead of younger men - to help store equipment after rehearsals.
So it was fitting that the choir paid tribute in Maker Church, on May 17, at a
memorial service celebrating his life in the very place where Fred had first
discovered his love of singing, having performed there as a choirboy. The
following day he had been due to sing in a Maker concert which, with the help of
Wadebridge MVC, raised £550 for the iconic bell tower which is in need of
repair.
Fred was among the Rame choir's earliest members when it was founded in 1976,
and played a significant part in the charitable ethos which was instrumental in
them receiving the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service last year. When Cornwall
Council honoured the choir with a reception, it was Fred who was charged with
accepting a framed parchment on their behalf from the Lord Lieutenant of
Cornwall.
Fred was no stranger to the notion of service to others, in a range of roles not
only remarkable on the basis of longevity. He was simply peerless.
He served for many years as secretary of the Millbrook Permanent Annuity
Society, supporting members' widows, and was a member of the Pelican Masonic
Lodge. He was the choir almoner, and also, for some three decades, Rame's
representative at the Cornish Federation of Male Voice Choirs where his wise and
friendly counsel was much valued. He was delighted when nominated by his
colleagues to receive the federation honour of the President's Plate, given to
member choirs for service to singing in their community.
During his service as federation rep, the choir participated in several
concerts, the two most recent of which, at the Royal Albert Hall and in
Plymouth, resulted in more than £90,000 being raised by the federation for
Cornish charities.
Fred was born in Cawsand on August 25, 1925, into a naval family - his father,
George, was in the Royal Navy - and a world where films were silent, the first
TV images were yet to be transmitted, and Britain was heading into the
Depression with two million unemployed.
The family lived in Garrett Street in a spectacular location overlooking the
bay, but when he was just five years old, the idyll was shattered when he lost
his mum, Gladys. She had gone to nurse the vicar of Maker Church's two-year-old
daughter, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The child survived, but Fred's
mother contracted the illness, and died.
Fred attended Four Lanes End Junior School and then Hoe Grammar School in
Plymouth before studying engineering at Camborne College until the summer of
1945.
Thereafter he served in the Royal Navy, as a radar operator on board the
corvette, HMS Jasmine, seeing active service in the Middle East, Burma, and
Indian Ocean, before being being demobilised in 1946.
On leaving the service he worked for the South West Electricity Board before
studying at St Paul’s College in Cheltenham (now the University of
Gloucestershire) as a mature student in order to become a teacher. He was a
secondary school teacher of maths and technical drawing in Devon and Cornwall
for the rest of his working life, retiring at 55. He taught at schools in
Liskeard, Callington, and Torpoint, although he continued to do supply teaching
thereafter.
He married a Millbrook girl, Dorcas Caroline Jane Austin, in 1952. 
She predeceased him in July 2005. His younger brother, John, passed away some 10
years ago.
Fred is survived by his daughter, June Caroline, granddaughter Emma, grandson
Noel (married to Jennie) and great-granddaughter Eva.
Fred was a fine all-round sportsman. He was employed as a lifeguard at Plymouth
Hoe swimming pool while on holiday breaks from St Paul's, and he became an
instructor/examiner for the Duke of Edinburgh award, which on occasion called
for him to go out on rescue missions on Dartmoor.
Fellow choristers recall him as an excellent batsman with Mount Edgcumbe Cricket
Club and he was a forward with Plymouth Albion Rugby Club from 1948 - '52. He
boxed in the navy, and later became a national schoolboy boxing coach before
serving as chairman of the Schools Amateur Boxing Association. For many years he
sailed a 23-foot Hurley competitively.
They also recall him helping push a borrowed piano the wrong way along a one-way
street, then returning it after choir practice!
A man of forthright opinions, which he was not slow to share, he would admit
that he might have his faults, "but being wrong is not one of them!"
He and Dorcas took great pleasure in their touring caravan in the late 70's and
then later enjoyed a static caravan on The Lizard which Fred continued to use
until last year.
They very much enjoyed holidays with the family in the USA, and in Portugal,
also visiting Tunisia. 
He was every inch a local character and was among the subjects whom the noted
Whitsand artist, Louise Courtnell, selected for Project Lydos which involved her
painting portraits of many of the characters and worthies of the twin villages
of Kingsand and Cawsand. It was often assumed that the project's name had some
profound classical allusion. In fact, as Louise confided, it stood for: "Lift
your drawers or swim," - fishermen's advice regarding toilet facilities!
Fred will surely be an asset to God's choir in the sky where Rame members who
have beaten him to it will be in for some earache if they failed to lay in some
Pusser's rum for his arrival!

Doug Gillon