Mel Rolfe

Mervyn (Mel) Rolfe died peacefully at the Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield, on Thursday 19th May.

He was the beloved husband of Jessie, father of Gary and Catherine, stepfather of Heather, Ian and Carl, and much loved grandfather of twelve.

Mervyn (Mel) Rolfe lived most of his life in rural England, including twenty years in Buckinghamshire.

In the RAF for two years’ National Service, he learned to type at the former RAF Swinderby.

He became came a journalist in 1959 for newspapers in East London.

He also worked in Fleet Street for some years before thinking it would be a good idea to buy a small hotel in Falmouth.  When the sitcom Fawlty Towers appeared on our screen, he thought it was based on his hotel. He learned later in was based on one in Torquay.

But it was bad idea and he hastily returned to journalism and the work he loves.

He moved to the Grantham area in the mid-1980s, and spent eight years as a feature writer with the Grantham Journal. During this time he wrote six books based on the Second World War.

In Grantham he met and married Jessie, a local schoolteacher, and the couple made their home at Little Humby.