A WELL known Abergavenny man has died.
Cyril Eric Feldwick, who died in hospital aged 92, was a bookseller, first as manager of Wyman's in the High Street and then later at Lockyer's in Monk Street.
He was born in 1916 in Brimscombe, Gloucestershire, and educated at Marling School, Stroud. He began work in the 1930s at the Wyman's bookstall on Paddington Station. In the Second World War he served in the REME and was posted to Malta, almost losing his life on the journey when his troopship was torpedoed in the Atlantic. After the war he became a branch manager for Wyman's, coming to Abergavenny in 1961 from London to manage their booksellers and newsagents store at 19 High Street. A few years later the branch was closed down, and not wishing to accept the relocation offered him Cyril Feldwick took a job in the accounts department at Coopers Filters in Llanfoist. He worked there until 1981, being promoted to the post of Budget Controller; then, aged 65, he 'retired' and returned to his first love, bookselling, working for HK Lockyer's antiquarian bookshop in Monk Street for another twenty years.
Cyril Feldwick was active well into his 80s as a hillwalker and birdwatcher, never happier than when he was hiking the hills between Abergavenny and Hay on Wye.
He was also an enthusiastic steward and guide at St Mary's Priory Church, as well as a keen crossword puzzler – at the age of 87 he travelled to London for the national finals of the Telegraph Crossword competition. Only his last few years were marred by decreased mobility and declining health.
He is survived by Ruby, who he married in 1949; by his son Paul and two daughters, Josephine and Christine, and by ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren.