ILMINSTER NEWS: Tributes to a man for all photos

TRIBUTES have poured in following the news that well-known Somerset-based photographer Dave Wheadon has died.

Mr Wheadon died earlier this week at the age of 84 following a bravely fought battle with dementia.

His career as a photographer spanned more than six decades and he covered many events for publications such as the Chard and Ilminster News and the Western Gazette, while he also worked as a freelance TV cameraman for HTV.

Mr Wheadon was born in Corfe, near Taunton, and moved to Wadeford near Chard in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

He attended the now closed Corfe Primary School, Combe St Nicholas Primary School and later Ilminster Grammar School.

He has always been a freelance photographer and has supplied thousands of news photographs to the local press.

A former colleague Rob Drayton, now a member of Ilminster Town Council, said: “The incredible thing about Dave is that he had started to take photos for local papers even before he left Ilminster Grammar School.

“That was more than 60 years of dedication to a profession he dedicated his life to. I worked with him on the Chard and Ilminster News from 1968 until he retired. He will be remembered by thousands in the area – generation after generation getting their wedding photos, baby portraits and social occasions into print.

“But most of all his local newspaper pictures of every conceivable event public and private – his library was immense.

“Dave’s dedication to his work was only matched by his dedication to his wife Clo – his right-hand woman on everything he did – and his family.”

Mr Drayton added: “Dave was a true professional and a formidable colleague of great professional standing who will be missed by many around the area.”

PHOTO - RIGHT: RIP Dave Wheadon.

It was an advertisement in the situations vacant column of the Chard and Ilminster News in 1957 which was responsible for bringing Mr Wheadon together with Clodagh Everett, of Tatworth, who would eventually go on to become Mrs Wheadon and his wife for nearly 60 years.

Clo answered the advert for a photographer’s assistant placed by D.J. Wheadon, who had a studio in the George Hotel Yard.

Romance followed and they married at St John’s Church in Tatworth in 1958 with the reception in the local Memorial Hall.

They bought a former boot and shoe shop in Holyrood Street, Chard, where, after a brief honeymoon in London, they ran a photographic business until 1998 when the time came to take things a little easier.

That did not stop Mr Wheadon from continuing his work as a freelance photographer and it was only until a serious fall at home which left him fighting for his life that he finally hung up his camera.

But he battled back from that accident in true Mr Wheadon fighting spirit – although he had to take things a lot more steady.

Former Chard and Ilminster News chief reporter Steve Sowden, now of the Chard Press and Ilminster Press websites, said: “It was a privilege to have known Dave while I was working at the Chard and Ilminster News.

“He was a real character and a real master of his trade. He was never short of a story or two and he knew so many people.

“He really was a link between the modern day media and the golden age of the press and photography and embraced the huge changes in the profession with superb professionalism.

“My deepest condolences go to Clo and his family.”

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