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OBITUARY - Reg Casbolt
December 2005
December 2005
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our Vice President Reg Casbolt at the age of 80. Reg passed away just after Christmas following a short spell in hospital. Reg was a founder member of Hospital Radio Colchester and played a key role in setting up the service in 1963. As a representative of the Colchester United football supporters club he joined an entertainments committee that had been set up along with the Colchester Community Fund and the King Coel Kittens to develop a hospital broadcasting service for Colchester and surrounding areas. Prior to this Reg had been heavily involved with the introduction of football commentaries of Colchester United home matches to the hospitals which started more than a decade earlier and was the forerunner of
HRC. Although from a footballing background, Reg was not directly involved "on-air" with the commentaries but instead took a very active role in the early patient request programmes, originally as part of the Sunday morning team and was a regular visitor to the wards. As time progressed Reg also became involved with the Wednesday team and took an active role with fundraising activities. Another great contribution to the service was Reg's woodworking skills. Along with Ray Jennings and Reg Willis, he designed and built the original studios at the Wilson Marriage Centre following our move from the old Odeon Cinema in 1990. Reg held many other posts within the service, including Secretary and Vice Chairman. Reg remained as Vice Chairman until 1998 when he retired and was made honorary life Vice President, along with Eric Southernwood. Since then Reg remained very interested in the development of the service and was very excited about our planned move to the hospital. It is a great pity that he did not live to see it! Our thought's are with Reg's wife Ivy and his family at this sad time.