Farewell to the saviour of Bristol's Arnos Vale Cemetery

His final journey began with a last and poignant farewell visit to the place he had done so much to save.

As the hearse carrying Richard Smith's coffin eased through the Cemetery Road gates of Arnos Vale cemetery it seemed as though the eyes of every angel there turned to watch over him.

For without Richard, Arnos Vale cemetery would surely have been lost.

For the next few minutes his cortege moved at walking pace down through the cemetery he knew so well.

Past the war memorial, one of the first monuments he helped restore, past the West Lodge where work was completed in 2006 and where a few friends had gathered to see the cortege.

Then the hearse made a circuit of the cemetery stopping briefly at the Anglican chapel where the newly-installed bell tolled to mark his passing.

Richard, who fought cancer for three years, had so hoped to live long enough to see the building finished.

Builders working on the Non-Conformist Chapel bowed their heads as the cortege passed on its way to the main gates where work on the East Lodge is due to be completed on Monday.

Across the city at Canford crematorium beneath leaden grey skies those who loved him, those who admired him, those who had worked alongside him and those who had so many reasons to thank him stood silently waiting to bid him a final goodbye.

It was an unorthodox service planned by Richard himself with his beloved wife Joyce.

Joyce, who like Richard, was made an MBE for her work to save the cemetery, gave a moving eulogy to her husband to whom she was married for 35 years.

She said: "Richard would have been amazed to see so many people here. He was a private and modest man and he did not really appreciate his worth.

"Richard did not wish you to mourn him but asked rather that you celebrate his life"

She recounted tales from his childhood in Brislington when his innovation and aptitude for engineering first emerged.

Joyce said: "He could always make things and keep things going if they stopped, which was especially useful at Arnos Vale in the early days when everything fell to pieces if you looked at it."

Richard, who was 64, did an engineering apprenticeship with a company called HO Strong which made and repaired lifts and while learning his trade he worked on the coffin lift at Canford crematorium which was why it was chosen for his funeral service.

Joyce and Richard met at work and he proposed to her on their third date. She said: "We had 35 years of happy and companionable marriage, over half that time fighting to save Arnos Vale, which was our passion."

But there was a lot more to Richard. He and Joyce were members of Hanham Folk Centre Players and Richard was probably the first man in Bristol to have a home computer - which he built himself in three evenings.

As the campaign to save the cemetery gathered strength Richard joked to his wife that if they didn't eat for 20 years he could retire early to devote himself to the campaign full time.

Both Richard and Joyce had relatives buried in the cemetery when, in 1987, the then owner of the land Tony Towner and his Bristol General Cemetery Company revealed plans to exhume graves and build houses on the site.

The couple, from Downend were central to the formation of the Friends of Arnos Vale Cemetery (FAVC), and worked to set up the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust which lobbied Bristol City Council to buy the cemetery.

Richard was also one of the main driving forces behind the bid, which in December 2005, saw the cemetery awarded a £4.8 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant for restoration work.

At that time none of the buildings was usable. All will be finished this year.

Despite his illness Richard attended a ceremony with Lord Mayor Chris Davies in May to mark the re-installation of the 160-year-old bronze bell in the cupola on the top of the Anglican chapel.

Joyce said: "Giving up was never an option for him. He told me just a week before he died that he was never giving up the fight, and he never did but this was one fight we could not win."

She urged all those who have offered help since Richard's death to help make sure that Arnos Vale is never again at risk.

Joyce will be carrying on her husband's work.

His ashes will be scattered at Arnos Vale cemetery, the place to which he devoted more than two decades of his life.

Bristol-based TV personality and patron of the cemetery trust, Chris Serle, was among more than 100 people at service.

He said: "It was a very appropriate and moving ceremony which, because Richard had been ill for a while, he was able to plan with Joyce.

"What was touching about it was that Richard saw himself as an ordinary man and he wasn't, he was an extraordinary man."

Councillor Gary Hopkins, cabinet member for environment and community safety, said: "What you have to admire is his patience and persistence and his ability to get huge numbers of other people on board."

Jim Neale, 57, of Chatsworth Road, Brislington, has three generations of his family buried at Arnos Vale and his father had just died when Mr Towner shut the gates.

Mr Neale, who spent many days working with Richard at the cemetery, said: "He was a good chap - he was genuine."

Another volunteer, Rodney Jones, 59, of Salcombe Road, Knowle, whose daughter Gemma is buried at Arnos Vale, said the fight had been long and difficult but the cemetery was nearly restored to its former glory.

Few people in the history of modern Bristol will have touched the past, present and the future of so many families in our city as Richard Smith.

He will always have a place in our hearts and in Arnos Vale.