The death has occurred at Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, of former Penrithian Terence McCune, aged 86.
One of two children of the late George and Mary (Molly) McCune, he was born and raised in Penrith. He had a brother, Michael.
The young Terence — invariably known as Titch — attended Penrith’s old Robinson’s School, in Middlegate, and then the town’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School.
He captained a Grammar School cricket team which won the Molyneux Shield, for local youth teams, and, at the age of 16, played football for the county under-18 team. He also played at this age for Penrith Football Club’s first team, as an outside half. His other outdoor interests included rugby and golf, with the professional at the town club encouraging him to develop a keen interest in the latter sport which remained with him throughout his life.
He left school at the age of 16 to join the RAF as an apprentice and completed two years of training before passing out as a junior technician.
He was then posted as a regular member of the force to Church Fenton, and further postings followed over the years to many other bases, including at Cottesmore, Finningley, Faldingworth, Wittering, Akrotiri, in Cyprus, and Seletar, in Singapore. It was while at the latter RAF base that he won the Singapore Open Golf Championship in 1968.
He was also in Aden during the uprising and subsequent conflict in what is now Yemen, and Salalah, in Oman. It was in 1957 that he married Rita and the couple later received two telegrams from the Queen, one for their 60th anniversary and the other their 65th.
They had five daughters, Heather, Gillian, Debbie, Judie and the late Melanie. After leaving the RAF he worked at British Aerospace and went on to act as a materials controller consultant for various companies before retiring gracefully to spend more time on the golf course!
He captained a number of civilian golf clubs over the years and also enjoyed playing cricket and rugby. He liked watching most other sports and was a fun loving man who was very sociable by nature.
