Former master mariner, pilot and Hoverlloyd and SeaCat captain Graham Wallin, who lived in Westwood with wife Margaret, has passed away at the age of 85.
The dad-of-two and grandad-of-one was the first, and possibly the only person, to have a Foreign Going Master Mariner Certificate – meaning he could Captain any boat/ship in the world; an Airline Transport Pilot Licence with which he flew both passenger and freight planes and was also a Hovercraft Captain, a role he held for 20 years.
Graham was born in in November 1938 in Kingston upon Thames. He spent some of his childhood in Birchington and later went on to train aboard the HMS Conway Merchant Navy Ship in the Menai Strait, Irish Sea.
He met Margaret in Jersey, where his parents lived, and the pair were married in December 1965 at the island’s Trinity Parish Church.
They returned to England in early 1966 for Graham to begin his aircraft pilot training. As a civilian airline pilot, he was involved in at least one troop lift from Aden during the conflict in 1967.
The couple and sons David and Fraser, moved from Sussex to Cliffsend after Graham took a job with Hoverlloyd in 1975.
David, who lives in Westgate, said: “In some ways Dad was old-fashioned, he wasn’t in the military but was brought up in that sort of way.
“We moved to Cliffsend when he started working on the Hovercraft, working out of the hoverport at Pegwell and then later from Dover until he retired.
“In August 1990 Alison Streeter was the first woman to swim the English Channel three times in a row and she came back to the UK by Hovercraft, Captained by Dad.”
Graham was also part of a team that took the SeaCat from the UK to Singapore via the Suez Canal.
When Graham retired he began volunteering as a driver, taking people to hospital, and became a member of Ramsgate Croquet Club. He and Margaret had bought a holiday home in South Africa where they would spend January and February each year and Graham was also a croquet club member in Fish Hoek in Cape Town.
“He loved travelling, doing a lot through his job and then more with Mum in later life.
“When I went travelling he was very supportive, he valued having life experiences and it was something he encouraged.
“When we were kids he would build us go-karts, he built furniture, brewed his own beer and played a bit of golf.
“He loved going on walks with Mum and he volunteered as a hospital driver because he wanted to give something back as we had needed the NHS in our lives.”
Graham is survived by his older sister, his wife Margaret, sons David and Fraser, grandson Jake and wider family.
RIP thinking of his family at there sad time he sounded absolutely wonderful
Here is a bit of Dad on Newsroom Southeast, from a few(!) years ago.