Tony Bassett, Eulogy by Rona Bassett When we accompanied Tony into Holy Rood church, we did so to the wonderful Welsh love song, Myfanwy. Some of you may know that Myfanwy means “Beloved”. Tony was indeed dearly loved, and the turnout today is a testament to the love that we all have for him. Tony was kind, generous, and caring with a wonderful sense of fun. He also had a great way of being able to use humour to gently defuse tense situations and it was one of his qualities I most admired. Some of the other words and phrases that you have used to describe Tony include: “Strong, cheerful, optimistic, lovely, remarkable, affable, good natured, sincere, happy, friendly, thoughtful, warm and welcoming, respected and valued, a beaming smile & friendly nature with an infectious laugh; he always chatted and took an interest in life and people, always willing to help anyone, he was a friend who would be there to talk to, he brightened everyone’s day”. Let me take you back nearly 69 years when Tony’s journey in life began in a little tied cottage in a small village in Kent. His caring nature was apparent even as a young boy when he used to run behind the combine harvesters catching all the little pink baby mice and stuffing them into his pockets so that he could care for them at home. Inevitably some got forgotten about which gave his mum a huge shock when she went to wash his clothes later in the day. The family left Kent when Tony was 6 and his little brother, David, 4 and went back to live near his mother’s family in Cardiff. Although they were poor, Tony’s memories of these were happy ones, of impromptu picnics into the surrounding Welsh countryside. At 16 he joined the Royal Navy specialising in underwater weapons. After his basic training in HMS St Vincent in Gosport he then spent a year working in the Gulf – a huge adventure for a 16-year-old lad from Cardiff. He became a ships diver as well as a weapons armourer and had an illustrious career in Ton, Hunt and Sandown class Mine Counter Measure Vehicles serving on a number of occasions in Northern Ireland, the Gulf and in the Falklands he was on one of two hunt class vessels sent to clear live minefields laid around the islands. He was also a staff instructor on HMS Caroline, the last surviving ship of the Battle of Jutland. At the time she was the HQ for the RNR in Northern Ireland. It was onboard HMS Caroline that Tony and I met and became firm friends for life. Fairly early on in his naval career Tony married and had two lovely sons, Paul and Simon. On leaving the RN he joined Vosper Thorneycroft and helped set up the new training school in Porchester running the Single Role Mine Hunter training team for all 3 Royal Saudi Navy ships as well as 3 decommissioned RN ships sold to the Estonian Navy in 2006. Tony’s work included running the sea trials and managing sea training. For 7 years he was the technical consultant with the Republic of Korea Navy (South Korea), and subsequently went on to support many foreign naval forces including Romania, Greece, Guyana and Lithuania, travelling widely and often. Most recently he will be remembered for leading the Hunter Project in Babcock delivering training to Royal Saudi Navy Forces very effectively. Tony was an accomplished diver. He worked as a clearance diver in the Royal Navy but also became a rescue diver with PADI after leaving the RN and I have many happy memories of diving both abroad and in UK with him. Many times, the two of us would take off down to Lulworth Cove or Kimmeridge bay in Dorset exploring the underwater coastline. Tony was always calm in a crisis. When we were flying over the Andes from Ecuador to Peru a few years back we had a plane door malfunction causing the oxygen masks to appear suddenly. Whilst all the rest of us passengers were worried about crashing, Tony was completely flummoxed at not having received his wine with his dinner. Locally Tony’s BBQs are legendary as our neighbours will testify. When he was initially diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, one of our neighbours sent him a card saying: “Well, this is a fine mess you have got me in to! Where am I going to go now for a decent BBQ? In all the years we English have been trying to emulate the Aussies I have had to endure undercooked sausages / beef burgers / steaks et al until you came along and cooked the finest (plus something in a vine leaf ) that I managed to grab before the hordes descended.” This appealed to his sense of humour. Tony was ever enthusiastic, whether this was learning to sail; buying new gadgets, which, believe me, he did on a regular basis, whether, in my opinion, he needed them or not; learning French or Arabic, learning to play the Banjo, training our dogs, being a Pets as Therapy Volunteer; or watching Wales play rugby, particularly when they won the 6 nations! Our latest project, buying the camper van, meant lots of new gadgets and we had great fun in the past year, wild and conventional camping in all weathers and planning our future adventures together. Tony approached the news of his terminal prognosis with his usual pragmatism and stoicism. He didn’t rail against it or say ‘why me’ he just gently said “This is what life has dealt us” and we got on with putting our affairs in order and spending time chatting, hugging, laughing, crying, and sometimes saying nothing at all but being present in each other’s company was enough. And so, my darling, Tony I want to thank you for being my rock and my foundation, particularly when I have been very low you have lifted me up and shown me how to be calm in a storm, how to love, how to care and how to live life to the maximum. I will cherish the time we had together and go forward knowing that you are always here in my heart keeping me safe and giving me strength. Thank you and God bless.