Former Bury St Edmunds headteacher Brian Cash who was a ‘pillar of the community’ dies aged 76

A popular former headteacher and 'pillar of the Bury St Edmunds community’ has died.

Brian Cash, who worked at Westgate Community Primary School in the town for 28 years and was involved in many areas of town life, died aged 76 on Wednesday.

He supported the technical side of Bury Youth Theatre, helped Suffolk Young People's Theatre with their lighting, was heavily involved with Bury in Bloom, ran children's discos and set up a residents' association.

His wife of 53 years, Yvonne, said: "He touched so many people's lives through his teaching and his work with the performing arts. He was all about helping other people and was extremely good natured and even natured. He was a thoroughly nice chap and a pillar of the community."

Born in Sidcup, Brian moved to Upminster and trained to be a teacher at Christ Church College in Canterbury, where he met Yvonne and he was one of the first students nationally to gain the newly created Bachelor of Education degree.

The couple married in 1969 and moved to Romford, with his first teaching job at Elm Park School in nearby Hornchurch.

After two years, they moved to Bury St Edmunds and Brian was a class teacher at Howard Primary School, where he was given a promotion with extra responsibilities.

He moved to Westgate Primary in 1974 to be its deputy headteacher and became headteacher after a couple of years.

Yvonne said: "He really loved the children and loved working as a member of the team. He loved organising things, was extremely active and never sat down.

"He was apparently extremely good to work for. We know lots of people who worked as colleagues with him - they sang his praises. He was very even natured, very good at listening to people, always wanted to please people and help people."

During his time at Westgate, Brian took a secondment to develop a teacher recruitment programme, which ran for many years after he returned to his school.

With a hobby in stage lighting, he rented equipment to schools putting on their own productions.

Yvonne said: "The school had a hearing impairment unit which it still has for children with partial hearing and he was very proud of that. He also had the building extended and got a computer suite in. He was always looking at what the next thing would be and trying to stay ahead of the game. He was also into building websites."

Brian even appeared on national TV show Good Morning with Anne and Nick with a group of children who showcased their singing and sign language.

In 2002 he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and retired from the school.

Yvonne said she was advised she would only have him for another five years and it broke his heart to have to leave Westgate.

"We were absolutely devastated when he was diagnosed, him particularly because he couldn't go to work and that's how he defined himself," she said.

"We decided we were going to make the most of as many days as possible.

"For a very short amount of time he didn't know what to do with himself.

"He set about filling his life anew with things he did all the time - a lot of them were to help other people. He did physical things, he took on croquet and discovered he was incredibly good at it."

In 2015 he won the St Edmundsbury Sports Award for triumph over adversity.

He was also nominated for the BBC Radio Suffolk Neighbour from Heaven award after he set up the Cathedral Meadows Residents' Association and was named Citizen of the Week in The Citizen newspaper.

Yvonne added: "He was a lovely person who absolutely everybody respected and loved."

He leaves children Niki, Adam, Ben and Tamsin and nine grandchildren.

His funeral is at West Suffolk Crematorium on May 12 at 4pm, with colourful ties and clothing welcomed.

In lieu of flowers, people are asked to donate to the National Brain Appeal in his memory via https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/briancash

Over the years, his family have raised more than £10,000 for the appeal.