Last updated 05:37, Friday, 01 August 2008

In so many ways during his long and varied life, Ted Faulder was a traditionalist. He stood by the established values of the Church of England and said that should women bishops be appointed, he would become a Roman Catholic.

Ted Faulder: Firm belief politics should have no part in local government

He stood by his firm belief that politics should have no part in local government and while he served as a staunchly Independent councillor for many years, he still had good friends across the political spectrum.

He stood by the rule of law during his long service as a magistrate at local and city level.

His belief in the importance of courtesy and good manners made him widely acknowledged to be a gentleman of the old school.

He had a quiet sense of humour which was, occasionally, on the dark side.

Some years ago when a German salesman was trying to persuade him to buy agricultural chemicals he said: “I’ve been to your factory in Dusseldorf. I obliterated it.”

And this he really had done, during wartime service as a navigator, second pilot and bomb aimer on 40 missions over enemy territory.

His earned his living as a farmer at Oakbank, Longtown, in the family enterprise that began there in 1894 and which will now be run by his sons.

In the disastrous foot and mouth epidemic of 2001, he saw all his sheep and beef cattle slaughtered and burned in huge pyres on his land. There and then he decided he would not be putting any more money into livestock.

The farm then became entirely arable and, at the age of 81, he looked around for something more to do – and found it by going into partnership with his elder son in the timber haulage business.

As a magistrate he served for 25 years, initially in Longtown but later in Carlisle and he was also a member of the Licensing Panel.

In 1949 he was elected to the Border Rural District Council as an independent member for Kirkandrews and when this council was merged with the Carlisle County Borough Council, to form Carlisle City Council in 1973, he served on the enlarged authority for a further six years, as an independent member for Longtown.

He was, also, a member of the Kirkandrews-on-Esk parish council for many years, serving as chairman for most of them.

In his social life he was an honorary member of both the officers’ mess at RAF Carlisle and the officers’ mess at the army’s Central Ammunition Depot, Longtown.

Above all, however, he was a lifelong Christian and his faith was strong. He was a churchwarden at Kirkandrews for 25 years and he served on the Carlisle Diocesan Board of Finance. His views were firm and traditional. He did not hold with the ordination of women and later made his threat to leave the Church of England if women were appointed as bishops. Whether he would actually have done so was always open to question.

Edward Graham Faulder was born on April 16, 1922 and educated at Longtown School and Carlisle Grammar School. As soon as he left school he applied to join the RAF but the recruiting officer, realising he was too young, told him to go away and return in 12 months –which he did.

He was posted to various radar stations and then to Canada for air crew training. He completed a full tour of World War Two bombing missions before switching to low-flying sorties, dropping supplies to the French resistance movement in the Pyrenees.

He ended the war as air movements controller at Istres, near Marseilles. And he was never officially demobbed!

However, he arrived home and then enrolled at Carlisle Technical College, to improve his knowledge of physics and chemistry and he so well that he gained entry to Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he gained a master’s degree in agriculture.

He was married for more than 54 years to the nurse he met when he was a patient in the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle.

Ted Faulder died in the same Oakbank bedroom where he had been born, 86 years before and he leaves his wife, two sons, two grandsons, three granddaughters and two step-daughters.

His funeral service took place at Kirkandrews Church and he was buried there, in the family plot.