Retired draper Frank Henry Riley died at home (16, Queen’s Street, Stamford) on the morning of Saturday the 10th August, at the age of 91. He had been bedbound for the last two years of his life as the result of a stroke. The son of Frank Edward and Emma, Mr Riley was born and raised in Stamford, attending Brazenose, St George’s, the Bluecoat and Stamford Schools. He served his apprenticeship with Messrs Griffin & Spalding in Nottingham, and during the Second World War saw action with the R.A.F. in the Mediterranean. In 1947 he took over the running of the family business (F. E. Riley & Son, at 2-3 Maiden Lane) founded by his father some forty years earlier, and for forty years thereafter was known for being able to supply customers with items either discontinued or too unfashionable to be stocked elsewhere in the town. His speciality was the glove trade, which at Christmas frequently had him attempting to serve a shopful of customers aided only by his wife. The shop was resolutely old-fashioned, and enjoyed the support of those for whom the chance to pass the time of day was almost as important as the purchasing of goods. This unhurried atmosphere was further enhanced when, evening lace-making classes having started at Stamford College, Mr Riley took the opportunity to explore a long-held interest in the subject; and he would enjoy both the look of surprise on the faces of many customers who found him thus passing his time, as well as the chance to discuss – often at some length – his idiosyncratic hobby. A quietly dignified man with a healthy scepticism of officialdom and a certain amused contempt for all the unnecessary complications life put in his path, he delighted in the quirks and quiddities of the English language, and was always alert to the humorous potential of words, whether in his native tongue or a foreign language. He was an avid user of puns; cryptic crosswords were his chief recreation in retirement, and he would count the day wasted that saw the Telegraph crossword unfinished at its close. Television coverage of rugby and cricket matches also gave him great pleasure. He was for some years on the governing board of the Endowed Schools, which gave him the enjoyable opportunity to revisit and be part of his old school again. A regular churchgoer all his life until illness prevented him, he – like his father before him – sang for many years in the choir at St George’s church, where he met his wife Olive; he also sang with The Priory Singers. The weekly broadcast of Choral Evensong was an occasion that brooked no interruption, as the service was followed in his prayer book, and he was particularly gratified when the Lessons were read from the Authorized Version of the Bible, that being the version used when he had performed that office at St George’s church. A man of firm principles but tolerant, he seldom sought to impose his views on his sons and daughters, and by so doing won their admiration and respect. Olive having died in 1983, he leaves five sons, two daughters and many relatives and friends to remember him with great affection, and to attempt to fill the great gap he leaves in their lives.