Londonthorpe stalwart is presented with Tom Childs Award

The 10th annual Tom Childs Award was presented to Richard Bush of Londonthorpe at a ceremony at the Prince William of Gloucester Barracks Officers’ Mess.

The award was set in the memory of the late Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without parish council clerk Tom Childs, to give credit to someone who has gone out of their way to help others in the parish – much in the way that Tom himself did.

Mr Bush was nominated by two villagers from Londonthorpe – Mrs Jo Bloomfield and Mrs Wendella Moore.

Their nomination cited Richard for being heavily involved in many projects involving both the villages of Londonthorpe and Harrowby over a great many years.

All these were for the benefit of all the parishioners living within the parish.

Richard is a long standing member of the Londonthorpe Village Committee and for a good number of years Richard was a parish councillor (1984 until 1999).

He was involved via the parish council in the purchase of the village allotments when they fell into an overgrown mess (they then became the village amenity park). With the assistance of Tom Childs, Richard was involved in getting the grant to enable the purchase.

Richard also played a leading role raising monies to help to put in the original play equipment. He arranged fund-raising events in the parish of Londonthorpe towards these costs. One of these events was the village’s original Open Gardens Weekend.

Some years ago he supervised the renewal of the church bells in the village church of St John the Baptist and was involved the rebuilding of the church wall, undertaken by inmates from Stocken Prison with the stone sourced locally mainly from the family farm. He has also organised a Christmas Tree Festival in the church.

Pete Armstrong, the present clerk to the PC, said: “I’m sure Tom would be highly delighted that Richard’s work over the years has been recognised. As you have heard they worked together on several projects most of which actually came to fruition.”

The presentation of a certificate and a cheque for his chosen charity was undertaken by Lt Col Guy Stone, who added his congratulations.

Richard chose St Barnabas Hospice to receive the cheque of £200.