TRAIN enthusiast Raymond Coffin, who died peacefully on October 27, aged 81, lived his whole life in Moordown and worked for Willis Builders’ Merchants for over 40 years.

An only child, Mr Coffin was born in Boscombe in 1932, but brought up in Moordown.

The war had a significant impact on him, especially with the loss of his father, a postman, from illness in 1944.

A fellow postman, who promised his father he would help with the cost of medicine for Ray’s diabetes, became a father-figure to the young man, although Uncle Tom, as he was known, was never romantically involved with Ray’s mother.

Mr Coffin went to Winton and Moordown School, now the Moordown Community Centre that he helped to start and where he served on the management committee for 14 years.

He passed the scholarship to attend Bournemouth School for Boys, where he met his lifelong pal Roy Earney.

The pair had a passion for trains, and also worked together at Willis’s, where Ray was a buyer.

There he met his future wife Jean, a secretary working next door.

Mr Coffin proposed at the company Christmas party in 1959 and the pair married on Boxing Day in 1961. They moved into his mother’s house, and later inherited the property in Queen Mary Avenue.

In their later years the couple developed a fondness for travelling, particularly involving trains, and one highlight was a journey to Venice on the Orient Express.

On Boxing Day 2011 they celebrated their golden wedding.

With his “glass half full” attitude to life he dealt stoically with the effects of diabetes for more than 75 years, thanks to excellent care from the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, and he was awarded the John Macleod medal for this feat.

He became a favourite among staff and residents at Muscliff Nursing Home earlier this year, and a terror in the home’s regular quizzes.

A funeral service will be held today at Bournemouth Crematorium at 12pm. Family flowers only.