A TIDE of grief has swept over Abergavenny after the death of its resident street character Henry Parry.

Many people - moved by the revelation that Henry faced a pauper’s funeral because he had no immediate family to pay for one - offered to make contributions to give him a decent send-off. And on Monday dozens of people visited the Chronicle office with offers of help.

But it emerged this week that 68-year-old Henry, who died last week in hospital, will receive a paid-for funeral after all.

All are being made welcome to attend the service at the Gwent Crematorium in Croesyceiliog on September 24, a Thursday.

The 2pm service is being arranged by Abergavenny funeral directors Ted Williams and Son who in a notice this week said donations were being accepted for the Shelter charity. There were to be no flowers by request.

Details of who is paying for the service are not being revealed.

Henry, who wandered the streets of Abergavenny for more than 20 years, died in Nevill Hall Hospital of natural causes on the night of September 7.

It was 12 weeks ago that he was rushed to the casualty department from his makeshift home under the empty magistrates’s court next to the police station in Tudor Street.

Officers noticed he was obviously under the weather and intervened to have him ferried by ambulance to Nevill Hall.

It’s understood that the normally taciturn Henry refused any tests under the care of his health team.

He had lived under the courthouse for some 15 years with a regular stream of wellwishers helping him out with gifts of food and clothing.

One of them told the Chronicle, “It was so sad to hear that he had died. In a strange way he will be missed by quite of lot of people in the town.”

Another said, ‘I saw him once trying to replace some cardboard in his shoes - so I went home and got him a pair.

“He just grunted when I gave them to him. But he obviously liked them because I saw him wearing them the next day.”

The woman, who did not want to be named, was one a several who were anxious to make a donation to spare Henry the indignity of a pauper’s funeral - or an ‘assisted funeral’ as they are now known.

Henry’s death even became the topic of a local church sermon last weekend with the subject of a paid-for funeral being discussed. More information has slowly emerged about Henry’s background.

It’s known that he was well educated, had a good job and a nice house.

But his professional world fell apart - and with it his life and connections with family. He would sometimes make a pilgrimage to Skenfrith Church to sit in the graveyard where members of his family are thought to be buried.

One person who befriended Henry and helped him in his last days on the streets recalled, “No one really knew him. But I will never forget his eyes. He had the eyes of a boy.”