Tributes paid to well-known ice cream man Jake Lennie

Jake Lennie, known by many as Mr Mac, died on Sunday June 13, having been out working his usual round the day before.

Having moved down to Basingstoke from Scotland in 1963, he met his wife and set off on their travels in a caravan.

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His daughter Jemma said: “He has had a few different vans in that time, but he has always been known as Mister Mac.

“My mum and dad started off 48 years ago. They were initially going to go around delivering animal foods but then someone suggested being an ice cream man.

“Everyone is calling him a legend. I have met people who have been getting ice cream off him for years. There are three or four generations that he delivered to which is just amazing.”

Jake Lennie would cover many villages in Dorset in his ice cream van, including Wimborne, Corfe Mullen, Verwood and Ringwood.

Ten ice cream vans followed the hearse and the limousine as the procession drove past Wimborne Square at 2.30pm on Wednesday June 7 on its way to the crematorium.

Residents applauded the funeral cortege as it travelled through Wimborne town centre, led by the Mister Mac ice cream van which was driven by Jemma Lennie.

“It was absolutely amazing. My breathe was taken away by the sight of all those people lining the streets,” she said.

“When we hit the main square and everyone was clapping and the chimes were playing, I had to really concentrate on driving as I was crying. It is so touching to know that he touched so many people’s lives.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to give my dad the perfect send off. It was just amazing, and makes me feel so proud to call him my dad.”

Along with the procession, Jake’s close friends Robert Ferrett was handing out free whippy ice creams to people who lined the streets to pay tribute to Mr Mac.

Many attendees of the procession recalled memories of Jake on his various deliveries across Dorset.

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John Spatchet, 69 from Wimborne, said: “He used to come around the road where my mother lived in Corfe Hill on Sunday nights. I would usually stock up on ice cream for the rest of the week until he came around the following week.

“We have bumped into some people from the Lake District who saw the procession and they were shocked that a village would do something like this. I think it says something about the community spirit of Wimborne.

“It was a lovely tribute to give to such a nice man, and to have one of his friends giving away ice cream to people was a lovely touch.”

A resident from Corfe Mullen added: “I had known Jake for years, he used to go onto the estate every Thursday.

“It was a very moving procession, seeing all the ice cream vans coming through the town was a lovely site. All the rivals become colleagues for today.

“It takes something like this for them all to come together. It was a lovely day for a lovely man.”