JOHN Moore Mumford — known as Jack Mumford — has died in St Mary's Hospital at the age of 91.

Born in South Shields, Newcastle in December of 1926, he moved to the IW when he was just six months old.

He lived in Cowes throughout his childhood, attending Cross Street School and Denmark Road School before leaving at the age of 14 to work at a butchers.

Two years later, he joined Trinity House as a pantry boy where he served on the Andre Blondel.

From here, he joined the Merchant Navy where he travelled to Australia and South Africa, met his wife, Margery, at a holiday camp then moved to London to work on pleasure boats.

Jack and Margery moved back to the Island when Trinity House wrote to him and asked him to return and they had three children — Colin, Barry and Carol.

Margery sadly passed away in 1977, and Jack stayed on the Island with his family.

He retired at the age of 63 after 36 years of service for Trinity House and then enjoyed going out for tea, listening to the radio as he loved music and liked to watch films.

Jack leaves behind seven grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.

His son, Colin, said: "He wasn't just my father but my best friend. He treated everybody the same and he will be terribly terribly missed by a lot of people."