A CONSERVATIONIST appointed an MBE for his efforts and who spent nearly 50 years' service in Chelmsford's most iconic company has died aged 96.
A celebration of Stan Church's life was held at St Michael's Church, Galleywood, on Wednesday last week.
His son Robin, 66, who lives in Rutland, said: "The church was completely filled, goodness knows how many were there, maybe 200."
The service to the great-grandfather-of-two, who racked up 47 years' service to Marconi, was followed by a wake at the Galleywood Heritage Centre.
Following other family members into the company, he joined the firm in 1935 when it was known as Marconi's Wireless and Telegraph Company Limited.
He retired in 1982 having worked his way up to manager of the spares department of the central division of Marconi Communication Systems Limited.
Stan, who lived in Well Lane, Galleywood, was a keen cyclist who rode to work each day, first to central division at their Westway headquarters and later to the firm's labs in Waterhouse Lane.
A member of the Chelmsford Cycling Action Group, he marked his 90th birthday with a 3.5-mile cycle from Backnang Square to Chelmer Park, Galleywood.
He prided himself on his fitness despite his advancing years, cycling most days and swimming at Chelmsford's Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre most weeks well into his 90s.
In his younger years, he also pursued his interest in athletics and football, managing Galleywood Football Club for a period.
Stan was able to fully embrace his conservation interest in retirement, and was a member of Galleywood's the Environment Group, the Trust for Conservation Volunteers and the Essex Wildlife Trust.
He shared this passion with his wife Queenie, whom he met at Marconi. She died in 1997, aged 73.
Stan was a founder member of the group who opened the conservation group between EEV and the railway in Chelmsford's Central Park, and also gave the area its name, Marconi Ponds.
His conservation work saw him recognised at a national level, including a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by the HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1999.
And at the age of 91 in 2010 he was awarded the MBE for his environmental work, which came as a "complete surprise".
Originally from north London, his mother Rose ran the Golden Fleece pub in Brentwood in the 1930s, and he commuted with his brother Victor to his first job at Marconi, before she moved to the Nags Head in Baddow Road, Chelmsford.
He also worked at the company's London office, where he joined the Territorial Army at Stratford.
Sent to mainland Europe on the outbreak of the Second World War, he was lucky to make it back alive after spending two days on the beaches of Dunkirk before being evacuated the next day by HMS Ivanhoe.
"That was the worst moment of my life, and I was lucky to survive that day – many of our chaps didn't come back," he told the Chronicle in 2010.
Back home, he was seconded to the RAF and sent to RAF Brize Norton during the Battle of Britain, where his electronics background made him a signaller.
But in November 1940 a plea from his bosses at Marconi, who said he would better serve the war effort with them, saw him back at the firm working as an instrument-maker.
That was not the end of his military service, however, as Stan joined the Chelmsford D company Home Guard.
Father to daughter Jackie, who lives in Biggleswade, and Robin, Stan pursued his active lifestyle until about 94.
Robin said: "He was out doing his conservation up until about two and a half years ago, when he started to slow down and old age finally caught up with him."
During a short stay in Broomfield Hospital, he contracted pneumonia and died on Tuesday, July 1.
Peter Turrall, chairman of the Marconi Veterans' Association, said: "Stanley was a great man; a big cyclist and a great swimmer. He was a real gentleman of Marconi and treated everyone the same.
"He was a good, true, Marconi man."
