Aylesbury Vale says goodbye to well known and 'much loved' estate agent John Wilkinson

John was well known throughout Aylesbury Vale after some 70 years in practice.

He lived in Stewkley for many years and was very active in the local community including the Wing Airport campaign.

During the war he went to Dunstable Grammar school and then returned to Leighton Buzzard we he joined Larry Connell at Connells estate agents.

He was then called up for 2 years compulsory National Service, where he was picked out for Commissioning and then volunteered for Active Service and deployed to 4th Battalion Kings African Rifles at Jinja in Uganda.

As a young platoon commander he fought in the Mau Mau anti terrorist campaign in the jungle and mountains.

He was ensign to the colour when the Battalion ‘trooped the colour’ to the new Queen Elizabeth in 1954.

On returning to the UK he married his sweetheart Racheal Brown and he rejoined Connells, then a very small firm. His evident talent for deal making enabled him to progress rapidly and he and Larry Connell grew the firm to become one of the UK’s largest estate agency businesses.

By the 1970’s He became the majority shareholder in the firm driving expansion forwards opening new departments and offices.

He oversaw a period of resounding success, as the firm went from strength to strength under his tutelage.

He famously, rode point to point horses, sometimes falling off! Whilst a keen countryman he also hunted with the Whaddon Chase.

He and his wife Racheal moved to a farm in Stewkley in the early 1960’s where they bred some outstanding race horses and were very active in village life.

A popular and immensely sociable family he was very active in the community.

In 1977 he left Connells and started his own business, several of his former colleagues joined him and the new business took off, growing to 10 offices and departments across 5 counties in just 10 years, at the very peak of the Property boom he sold out to Prudential and retired to Mousehole in Cornwall, where he bought and renovated several properties including Keigwin Manor, where the famously the Spanish landed a fleet of 3 ships as an advance party to the Armada, as they renovated

the house, he found cannon and musket balls from the battle.

Subsequently he researched the story and wrote a book ‘The Pirate and the Prophecy’. However, the good weather called and he and Racheal moved to the south of France and spent 20 happy years, sailing his yacht and racing their horses.

They enjoyed a wonderful quality of life and returned back to the UK to be closer to family in 2015 where they entertained old friends and family are retold old stories.

He was an annual President of both the Bucks County Show and Winslow Prime stock show. A man of great charisma, there are so many stories about his life and his adventures and travels.

Well known as being a strong character with a temper, he often took matters into his own hands, but did so with good grace, impeccable manners and a sense of duty. He was a stickler for detail, honesty and integrity and always lead from the front.