Tributes paid to twinning club stalwart
PENNY Capoore, the chairman of Shepshed and District Twinning Association has paid tribute to Ralph Forbes, one of the group’s very first members who died on July 1 after a short illness.
“Ralph always kept a diary and whenever I began to wonder when a certain event had taken place, he would say,” I’ll look it up in my diary for you”. Without the reliability of Ralph’s diary I shall have to say that it was” about” 1984 when he and Jean Perry first went to our twin town of Domont to meet members of the Domont committee and have a look around the town.
“Judging it to be a good match for Shepshed the twinning went ahead, and Ralph remained a member until the end of his life. Indeed, it was only last year that he decided to retire from the committee on which, together with his wife Marlene, he had served for many years.
“Ralph’s interest in France predates 1984, though. He was a keen philatelist and in the 60’s and 70’s went to the Paris Stamp Fair on a regular basis - an interest which he shared with Jacques Poindron from the Domont committee. As Ralph’s career had been in the railways, he enjoyed train travel and benefitted from a lifelong discount. We went to Domont once by Eurostar to visit our friends in France and Ralph thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the opportunity to take advantage of his railways ‘perk’. Ralph was a very open and friendly man, who was always ready to embrace new experiences and was wellloved in France. He was in regular contact with his French family: Jean and Martine Léon.
“No story of Ralph’s French connection quite tops the one when he was mistaken by the French police for the dangerous gangster, Jacques Mesrine. Mesrine had many disguises and one of his looks resembled our gentle, quietly spoken Ralph! As a consequence, Ralph had several difficult conversations with the French police and was even held for questioning in Calais. They finally let him go, of course, and Ralph’s troubles ended with the demise of his dastardly lookalike in 1979.
“Another of Ralph’s French-related interests was the Ashby Wine Circle. He was always the one to offer to buy wines for our events and would research good buys well in advance. I think we still have a small number of those bottles and will drink a toast in his honour, in the near future, although we would much rather have continued to have his company.
“Ralph is survived by his wife, Marlene, brother Paul, his children Ian, Helen and Kay, step-children Simon and Lisa, five grandchildren, four step-grandchildren and four great grandchildren.”