THE man who took over running the York RAF Association’s annual Battle of Britain Wings Appeal from his wife has died six years to the day after her death.

Thursday, 23 January 2025 17:23

By Haydn Lewis

Ian Smith, of Stockton Lane, was 81 when he died on Sunday, January 12, six years after his wife Maureen died in 2019 aged 74. He passed away at York Hospital after a short illness.

Their daughter, Wendy Liddle, said: "He missed her incredibly after she passed. She was his rock - they had been through so much together."

Ian kept Maureen's legacy alive by continuing to fundraise for RAFA having had his own military service as a sergeant major in the Royal Artillery.

In the intervening six years since Maureen's death, Ian raised more than £100,000, and Wendy said he was always keen to praise and give credit to this impressive sum to the team who fundraised with him.

He had previously joined and supported the Royal British Legion, helping at its annual Poppy Appeal for a quarter of a century.

Ian and Maureen got engaged in 1964 at the Red Lion Whitehall, with Ian proposing after she finished her shift at the MOD - something he described as "the best move I ever made!"

The couple married the following year and went on to have two children; Wendy and her brother, Jason.

Ian also leaves behind five grandchildren – Alexander and Avril with Jason and wife Angela, and Eliza, Theo & Noah with Wendy and husband David.

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