BURLEY firefighter and maintenance man Ralph Gillam died peacefully at Drumconner Nursing Home on September 15, aged 91.

He battled blazes in the New Forest area for 26 years, before moving to Southbourne and taking on a job as head of maintenance at Pontins Holiday Camp in Christchurch.

Born in Burley on October 8, 1922, Mr Gillam began working as a carpenter and joiner’s apprentice after leaving school, working for local businesses.

Following military service with the Royal Berkshire and Cheshire regiments, which took him all around the world during the Second World War, he returned to Dorset to join his father’s maintenance and building firm J Gillam and Sons.

It was around this time that Mr Gillam met Edna and they married in April 1948, remaining together for 56 years until her death in 2005.

While working for the family firm, which he would later run alongside his son Richard, he joined the fire service as a retained firefighter in 1951. One of his first duties was to join his comrades lining the route of the funeral procession of King George VI the following year.

Based at Burley Fire Station, he was appointed sub-officer after two years and eventually commanded the station, making many friends and saving many lives over the course of his time there.

His duties included rescuing stranded pets and forest animals, and attending car crashes and even plane crashes to assist with emergencies.

He sustained numerous injuries in the course of carrying out his voluntary duties, having to be rescued from burning buildings and a heap of burning tyres, and he sustained severe burns in a thatched house fire.

Despite this, when he reached the retirement age of 55 and was forced to leave the service in 1977 he was devastated. In an effort to get away from reminders of what he was missing, he wound up the business and moved with his family to Southbourne.

While working for one of his clients – the son of Sir Ernest Shackleton – he had been given the legendary explorer’s roll top desk as a thank-you.

In Southbourne he and his wife opened a hardware store – Gillams Hardware – but, finding retail unrewarding, he soon left the shop in his wife’s capable hands.

Instead, Mr Gillam worked at Pontins, where he made many new friends and enjoyed himself greatly, only retiring through ill health in his 70s.

A proud and loving family man, he leaves his children Richard and Audrey, grandchildren Julia and Lorraine and great-grandchildren Elliott and Phoebe.