It is with great sadness that we report the passing of John Carder on Sunday 20 January at the age of 61. He died peacefully with his family around him and, like many that have gone before him at Beckenham, he has been taken from us far too early. Our love and thoughts go out to his wife Ann and their three sons Tony, Lee and Martyn.

John first came down the club in the early 90's and joined the U7's in 1994 with son Lee. John wasn't a rugby player himself but was soon stepping forward to volunteer helping out with all the admin as well as keeping impeccable stats on all the games the boys played. This selfless volunteering was to become a feature of John's love of the club and latterly you'd find him down bright and breezy on a Sunday morning helping Brian clear-up and get the clubhouse ready for the arrival of the hundreds of kids we are blessed to have as members. Once done he'd pop round to see Jackie in the shop and have a good chat. I know she's going to miss him greatly.

Anything that needed organising or volunteering for John was always at the front of the queue. He was a tireless supporter of the Summer Balls and always the first there the day after to start the clear up. But perhaps his favourite job was the Christmas Draw – he made it this year too – where he'd sit with Lorraine (Hooton) from something like 8am tearing and folding the returned tickets ready for the draw that afternoon.

John was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow, about 18 months ago and tackled it head on. He would joke about his trips to the ‘Kings Hotel’ and kept everyone up to date on Facebook. We had hoped that the stem cell treatment had worked, but sadly that was only a temporary respite. It was great to see him with his son’s at Twickenham over Christmas surrounded by his friends, as that meant a lot to him. Always smiling, even to the last, a founding member of the Time Team (Vets Tours) and known affectionately as 'Johnny Camouflage' from when he got rather over excited when we organised paint balling on a mini's tour to Exeter, turning up in full military gear including, you guessed it, camouflage net!

We are going to miss you loads John, not only because you're the only one that drinks lager, but because you organised the flight for this year's Vets tour, and none of us know the booking reference!

Appropriate that the last laugh is on John.

Funeral details to follow.