Jeremy Dumas has died, aged 72

Former soldier Mr Dumas joined the RNLI in West Mersea in 2007, after retiring from a long and successful Army career and served at the lifeboat station until 2012.

He joined the Army in 1962 and was posted to Colchester, where he met his wife, Elizabeth Odling.

The couple married in February 1966 in the old Garrison Church, in Military Road, and they had three children, Richard, Alethea and Emily.

Mr Dumas spent the early part of his Army career on regimental duties, including a spell as a training officer with the Territorial Army. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1982.

The following year, he joined the British Army training team in Nigeria, then had a period working for the Defence Intelligence Staff. In 1989, he spent a year as the defence attache in Beirut. He was then promoted to full Colonel in January 1991 and sent to Damascus in a similar role.

He was appointed an OBE in 1991, and in 1994, becameadefence adviser in the Caribbean, based in Kingston, Jamaica.

The family kept a holiday home on Mersea for manyyears, and this was where they moved, when he retired from the Army, in 1997.

As a full-time islander, Mr Dumas got involved with the local church, starting a fundraising appeal to repair the church, He later founded the Friends of West Mersea Parish Council group and served on the committee which set up the island’s allotments, and was a one-time committee chairman.

His widow said: “He was keen to help the community. He was a gentleman, polite and quiet, but hard-working.

“He was really well organised and he got things done.”

In 2002, he became the deputy launching authority at the West Mersea lifeboat centre and in 2007 became station manager.

Mr Dumas was alsoakeen sailor and enjoyed going out on his yacht, Ivy Green.

Mrs Dumas added: “The RNLI was definitely something he was interested in.

“It was so lovely he could end up doing that. Being a sailor, it’s almost like payback.”

Mr Dumas stood down from his RNLI duties in 2012 because of ill health.

He died on February 22 of prostate cancer.

His funeral was held on Monday.