The death occurred in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, Somerset, on November 15, 2012, of Ernest Norman Gibson, a native of Co. Fermanagh.

Ernie, as he was affectionately known, was the 13th child of Margaret and Frederick Gibson; he was born on July 17, 1931 in Wellington Place, Enniskillen.

After leaving school, he worked in the Erne Hatchery, Erne Laundry and the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society (S.C.W.S.).

He left work to look after his mother.

In 1954, he went to Richmond to live with his sister Daisy and later took employment in Bentalls.

He went on to work in Harrod's in London, where he worked until his retirement and it was where he made many good friends.

Ernie - whose grandfather James Preston was a past employee of The Impartial Reporter - still had a lot of friends in Enniskillen and he met up with them at his surprise 80th birthday party a year ago.

He will be sadly missed by his nieces and nephews, grandnieces and nephews, cousins and wider family circle.

Ernie's funeral service was in St. John The Evangelist Church, Chard, Tatworth, and he was cremated in Taunton on November 29, 2012. His ashes will be interred in Breandrum Cemetery with his mother and father at a later date.