John Gamble 1943 – 2024

It is with considerable sadness we have to announce the sudden passing of John Gamble. John was a character larger than life, always ready with a joke and for another challenge, somebody we will always remember. He was the life and soul of a party, with many stories about cricket, journalism, Round Table and the RNLI.

Outside his family, John had three great passions, his shooting, his photography and his fishing. John had been a member and an active and loyal supporter of Ludshott Photographic club for over twenty years, joining in with all its competitions, meetings and social occasions. He was a member of the committee, and has organised many of our social events. At some of our early barbecues he was chief cook, and regularly attended the annual dinner each year. He has been a friend and willing helper to many of us, particularly the new and less experienced members. John was always ready and available to help anybody who asked. He was very competitive, always striving for top marks.  But we pulled his leg unmercifully about his photography and his photographs. We said he was the only photographer in the club who never entered an image worth less than a 10………. in his opinion! I remember once when he was a governor at the Royal Surrey Hospital he borrowed a skeleton and produced some hilarious photographs, which he entered into club competitions!

John loved the outdoors, shooting and fishing and spent many hours taking wildlife photos. He received an LRPS very early on, I think in 2005, with an excellent wildlife panel.

Although John had not been properly well for several years he had that determined, “bulldog” attitude and approach that was not going to stop him doing anything and everything he wanted to do. His unwillingness to give in and “sheer bloody mindedness” kept John going, sometimes when he should not have done so.

John was just as keen and competitive with his fishing, and that is what he was doing when he died yesterday. Although Sue had tried to persuade him not to go, John was determined to go to meet his mates for whom he had organised a day’s trout fishing. John had tackled up and headed straight for his favourite spot on a little promontory. After his third cast, probably much to his surprise, he hooked a lively trout. John managed to land the fish, summarily dispatched with his priest, stood up, then collapsed and did not recover.

However sad and sudden a shock that was to everyone, it was a way John himself would have chosen, especially if he had known at that point in the day he had caught the biggest trout!

John was a man of strongly held opinions. He could be irritatingly argumentative and curmudgeonly. Then he was like a dog with a bone, but John was also kind, thoughtful, generous, and had a heart as big as a bucket.

We will all have our own individual memories of him. Without doubt John Gamble will be remembered and missed by everyone who had the privilege of meeting and knowing him.
Kathleen and Gordon