REX MARTIN LANE Rex Lane died at the Arthur Rank Hospice on April 23 [2007], aged 74. Rex, who was born in Soham on September 20, 1932, lived his life to the full. The family moved to Lynton Drive, Ely in 1936 where Rex lived until he married Jan in 1958. He attended school in Market Street and Silver Street, then passed the scholarship to Soham Grammar School and was there 1943-48. He maintained contact with the school by attending the Old Boys’ Dinner each October, where he greatly enjoyed meeting old school friends. On leaving school he was apprenticed to a dental mechanic to Jefferson Smith. In 1953 at the age of 21 he did two years’ National Service at Weymouth in Dorset which, according to him, was one long holiday of mackerel fishing and sunbathing!

Rex at the Soham Grammarians' 2006 Dinner (Haslam)

In 1956 he began work at British Sugar at Queen Adelaide as a high pressure stoker and became Personnel Officer in 1969. A job he loved, it suited his extrovert personality. He held this post until the factory closed in 1981.

When Potter’s Haulage and Storage took over the site he became manager and oversaw the monumental task of turning a sugar beet factory into a haulage and storage warehouse.

Aged 60 he moved from Potter’s and began work in the office at Life Fitness. He retired when prostate cancer struck.

He and Jan had two sons, Stephen and Andrew, and five grandchildren, Martin, Gregory, Oliver, Callum and Thea. They were Rex’s pride and joy.

Next to his family, his great love was singing, which he began at 18 months old by serenading the neighbours. He sang with the Methodist Chapel and Ely Male Voice choirs, Ely Operatic Society and for 37 years was a loyal and greatly valued member of Campaign Amateur Theatre.

He was blessed with a very good bass singing voice and will be greatly missed by Ely Coral Society, with whom he sang in Verdi’s Requiem in Ely Cathedral on March 31, three weeks before he died.

Rex also performed with the Garden Theatre and just before Christmas played the policeman in Singing in the Rain.

Obituary published in the Ely Standard, Thursday May 17, 2007
Received from Brian & Beth Lane

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page last updated 4 Jul 2007