River festival stalwart dies aged 85
David Hill, a stalwart of the Maidstone River Festival, has died.
Mr Hill, who was in his 85, was a prime mover of the annual boat-owners’ gathering across three decades, having joined the organising committee in 1981 in the festival’s second year.
He was responsible for organising the illuminated boat parades in the evening.
He also did the commentating, using his extensive knowledge of the boating fraternity.
His own boat, Tean, which he had for 50 years, was moored on the Medway in Maidstone town centre opposite the Invicta Rowing Club.
He used it every year to transport the county’s beauty queen courts to the crowning ceremony of the Miss Maidstone contest.
Mr Hill was a man of many talents: he was a musician, playing the keyboards, and would perform with his wife Tessa playing the drums.
He was also a member of the Magic Circle and a qualified toastmaster.
After doing his national service, Mr Hill was for three years a floor manager with Rediffusion Television right at the start of commercial television.
Later, he took over running the family’s butcher’s shop in Sutton-on-Hone from his father. He was the third generation to run FF Gostelow’s (his mother’s maternal name), and was there for 16 years until 1982.
He died in Darent Valley Hospital on Tuesday of last week.
He had been suffering from dementia for the past two years, and had finally been admitted to a care home only three weeks earlier.
David Stephens, his friend and colleague on the River Festival Committee, said: “He was a wonderful man and will be very greatly missed.”
Mr Hill lived in Sutton-atHone near Dartford.
He leaves his widow, Tessa. The couple had no children.
A funeral service will be held for him at St John The Baptist Church, Church Road, Suttonat-Hone, on Monday April 10, at 11am.