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Tony Drake MBE Memorial Event - Wednesday 22nd May 2013
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ABOUT TONY
Tony Drake
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A life long Rambler, Tony dedicated his life to the development of our network of footpaths and the protection of our countryside. He was involved in the planning of several long distance paths, including the Cotswold Way and the Cambrian Way. He was instrumental in the production of the Gloucestershire definitive map resulting in the recording of many, many footpaths on our OS Maps.

Tony was involved with and influential in many countryside organisations over his long life. He was held in high esteem for his attention to detail particularly when the definitive map was being created and those with whom he worked, including the then Countryside Commission and Gloucestershire Public Rights of Way Staff who will gather along with representatives of other organisations, Ramblers' past Chairmen, past and present Board of Trustees members, Ramblers' Directors Wales and Scotland and others to remember this one off man who was such a key player in the Association for so many years and whose legacy we all enjoy every time we walk in the countryside of Gloucestershire and elsewhere.


A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF TONY
· Born 1923, only child, attended Wycliffe School
· Joined Scouts, relished outdoor pursuits
· As a pupil travelled by ferry to remote Forest of Dean at weekends
· At age 16 left school and entered family department store in Cheltenham, Drakes
· Trained at Bon Marche (now Debenhams) Gloucester to learn to manage family business
· Aged 18 he volunteered for RAF and was a Radar Technician until 1946
· From then until 1970's worked at Drakes as “Mr Antony”
· He loved walking and mountaineering
· As a part time hobby he became Footpath Secretary of Ramblers in Gloucestershire in 1951 at the age of 28
· He and teams of Ramblers worked hard to record hundreds of Public Rights of Way for the new Definitive Map
· He recorded rights of way on paper maps for over 200 parishes – these are now in the County Archives
· After inheriting the family department store in the 1970's he decided to sell up and devote himself full time to Ramblers
· He was a major contributor to the idea of the Cotswold Way
· Long before Explorer (and before them Pathfinder) Maps, he produced a series of 1:25,000 maps of the whole route
· He also produced for many years the Cotswold Way Accommodation Guide
· He painstakingly checked every revised edition of every OS map for the county as a service to OS for many years
· A very active member of the YHA in Wales
· Here he developed the mountain connoisseurs walk, the Cambrian Way, 270 miles long with 61.540 feet of ascent!
· White Roads Campaign, (pink or green dots on maps) putting lots more routes on the OS maps
· Campaigned for better stiles, gates and particularly gaps!
· He served on the Ramblers' Board of Trustees for over 20 years
· Awarded the MBE in 2001 for services to Public Rights of Way




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