Sad news, about an old friend of this forum

[Avebury_Janet]

I have some sad news to share, and I hope this is the right place for it. Many of you will remember George Pyle, who posted here in the early days as Downland_George, full of the old droving roads and the sheep fairs, before his eyes got too bad for the screen. George passed away last week, peacefully, at ninety-one. He was one of the very first members, joined the year we started, and he taught me more about the old county than any book ever did. I thought the forum should know. We have a good deal of him in the old threads still, every post he made is here, which is a kind of comfort. Perhaps that is part of what a place like this is for.

[Marlborough_Nan]

Oh, George. I remember him well; we never met but we wrote back and forth on here for years about the droving, and found we had grandmothers from villages not three miles apart. I am very sorry. Ninety-one and sharp as a tack till his eyes went. You are right Janet, he is still here in his way. I went and read his old posts again last night, and I could hear his voice in them plain as anything. That is a strange comfort, but a real one.

[E_Selwood]

I am very sorry to hear it. George Pyle was a fine and careful man and a credit to this forum from its first months. I will not delete his account, before anyone asks; he stays a member, and his posts stay exactly where they are. We are, among the other things we are, a place that remembers people after they are gone. I can think of worse purposes for a website. My condolences to any here who knew him.

[Chalkways_Fran]

Sorry to hear it. I met George once on the Ridgeway, years back, knew him by his hat from his profile picture, and walked the best part of a mile with him. He named every barrow we passed and who had dug it and when. Good man. The hill is a bit emptier.