22.08.20 Phil Hermes memorial walk.
Phil Hermes was a volunteer with GVCV from 1989 till 2018 when he died at the early age of 60 after contracting skin cancer and then having a heart attack.
Phil was particularly keen on tasks which required skill, such as dry stone walling and hedge laying.
Phil sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of hedge laying with the “young uns”
He liked to holiday in Greece each summer, carrying out footpath clearance work at Mount Athos.
Phil, from a 1995 GVCV newsletter
In his spare time Phil also liked bird watching on Cleeve Hill, so it is appropriate that his ashes are scattered there and that there is a plaque to his memory around the ‘lone tree’ on top of the hill.
Each year in August, to commemorate Phil’s life we organise a walk up Cleeve Hill to the place where his ashes are scattered. Some friends, family, and ex-work colleagues from European School Books join us conservation volunteers to remember Phil. Afterwards we adjourn to the local pub the Rising Sun for a convivial drink and lunch. This year 2022 it was on Saturday August 20th.
David G Evans.