Most of us knew that his illness two years ago was very serious, but that knowledge did not soften the shock of Phil’s sudden death a few weeks ago. So punctilious was he in his visits to the sick and so cheerful was he in coping with his increasing blindness, that we were beguiled into believing that he would be with us for many more years. But it was not to be. And when all of us who knew him began to reckon up what we and the village owed him in so many ways, we soon realised how much we had to be thankful for in Phil Sparrow. The catalogue of his activities has already been set out in the Obituary notice in the Evesham Journal. His work on the Flower Show Committee, for the British Legion, for the Church, and for a number of other organisations is well known. But valuable as all this certainly was, it was the man himself we valued most. We send our deepest sympathy to his widow in her bereavement.
Published in the May 1976 Parish Magazine.