Tributes have been pouring in following the death of radio veteran Noel Pritchard.

Noel was a presenter and stalwart supporter of community station Sheppey FM for 10 years and a familiar face at its roadshows across the Island .

He died in the early hours of Sunday at his home in Marine Parade, Sheerness after a short illness. He 76.

Julie Nicholls, the station's programme manager, said: "Noel was a huge part of Sheppey FM not only as a volunteer and presenter of his show 'All Our Yesterdays', which featured music from the early 1930s to 50s, but also as our roadshow manager. He was a familiar face and very well known. He was always out and about in the community attending school and church fetes and charity events."

She added: "He will be sorely missed. We all considered him a dear friend."

Noel, a trained electrician, was born on December 10 and was originally from Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, hence his nickname The Man From Down Under.

Friend Sadie Cordwell said: "He originally discovered the Isle of Sheppey by accident. He was sitting in his car on Southend seafront using his CB radio when he tuned into a group from the Island. He was eventually invited over for dinner and despite getting lost in Rochester on his first trip decided he loved it and within a few months had moved from Essex."

He had a wife and children in Shooters Hill, south east London, but when the marriage broke up he lost contact. He leaves a brother in East Sussex.

Sadie said: "He was on his own when he joined the Sheppey FM family and helped launched the roadshows and threw himself into them, travelling all over Kent."

She added: "He loved to dance and loved his pre-war music. He loved to promote unsigned artists from his native land, too, and despised rap music but would have a laugh with it. He said the thing he missed most about Australia were the huge crocodile steaks.

"He was a stickler for the rules. You could always trust Noel to go by the book. He was very passionate about radio and lived and breathed Sheppey FM. He enjoyed the simple things in life; he loved a sausage roll and a cupcake with a cup of coffee or a water and would always make tea or coffee for everyone."

Beverley Nolker, who runs the Sheppey ADHD awareness group, described him as a "true gentleman" and Martin Goodhew from Swale council said he was a "real champion and just a nice bloke."

Kristan Baker wrote on station's Facebook page that Noel was "one of the best" who "did anything for anyone". She said: "He never put himself first and was always there to lend a hand. He was the roadshow man who will be missed by so many. He was everyone's grandad. A friend and an Aussie. This will leave a hole in people’s lives."

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