A public memorial to commemorate the lives of much-loved Fermanagh couple Bill and Anne Barbour is to take place on Saturday.

The tragic deaths of the pair in November of last year shocked and saddened the entire community. 83-year-old Anne Barbour who was suffering the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease was found dead at the family home on the Sligo Road in Enniskillen. She died from suffocation. The body of husband Bill, 89, a former teacher at Portora Royal School, was recovered from Rossole Lough, a short distance away. A post-mortem examination found that Mr. Barbour had drowned. It's believed the couple had an agreement to end their lives if Mrs. Barbour's Alzheimer's disease got "too degrading".

Arranged by their four children: James, Charlotte, Pauline and Tom, the event at the Erne Integrated College will be a chance for the community to pay tribute to the well-respected couple.

"In the immediate hurt and confusion of my parents' sudden deaths we, their children, shrank back from a public funeral. However, the interest and kindness of people involved with them and their work locally has been very great, and has enabled us to arrange this opportunity for those who knew them to attend a more relaxed leave-taking, at which several co-workers from projects father was involved in have agreed to give short talks." explained James.

One of the speakers will be Mr. Barbour's former Portora colleague and vice-principal of the school, Robert Northridge.

"It will be an opportunity to show in public how much the Barbours were valued by the community and their contribution to such a wide range of things that they were involved in. It's a chance for us all to get together and reflect on the major contribution that the Barbours made to the community for over 56 years," he said.

Also taking part in the hour-long service will be principal of the Erne Integrated College, Tom Noble.

"There will be a number of tributes made, split up with some music. There will also be light refreshments afterwards for those attending to talk to the family and pay their own respects," said Mr. Noble.

In Portora's School Magazine of 1983, Tom an ex-pupil and later colleague, wrote an appreciation of Bill just after he had retired.

It said: "Portora will miss an exceptional man. We will miss his extraordinary wit, his charisma, his friendship and his charm; it will be difficult to forget his superb command of language and that resonant voice. We will remember his hammering away at the Common-room typewriter and his ability to conduct at least two conversations simultaneously; his reactions to the most formidable of crises - "How remarkable!" or "How extraordinary!"; his meticulous attention to detail; his remarkably radical approach to problem solving and his dislike of golf-courses. Many will remember his Hillman Minx of the mid sixties and his careful approach to the main Derrygonnelly road, and who can forget him as he pedalled majestically along Willoughby Place on that wonderful old bike?"'A celebration of the lives of Bill and Anne Barbour' will take place at the Erne Integrated College this Saturday, January 9 2010 at 1pm.