Former Ilkeston Advertiser photographer Frank Statham has died, aged 85.
Statham was part of the staff at the Advertiser for many years, joining in the mid-1950s.
He died in hospital in March after suffering a heart attack, brought on by renal failure, hypothermia and pneumonia.
Statham was born and raised in Ilkeston and went to school there before attending People’s College in Nottingham.
From
there he volunteered to serve with the RAF during the Second World War.
He wanted to be a pilot but was prevented by his colourblindness.
Instead, he was part of the desert campaign at Tripoli from 1941-1943.
The war kept him apart from his late wife, Miriam, for four years, but it was then that he began taking photographs.
He took many wedding pictures and particularly enjoyed council work he undertook on behalf of the Advertiser.
Before his retirement, Statham was a crane driver at Stanton Ironworks and over the past few years took many trips abroad.
He
enjoyed visiting the places he had seen during the war and had been to
Egypt, Cyprus and Malta, where he had gone to see where he refuelled
the Hurricanes. It was there that he recently became ill.
He leaves two children, Michael and Wendy, grandsons Peter and Andrew, and sister Elsie.
Ilkeston Advertiser
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