Tributes paid to ‘popular’ Newick musician

Tributes have been paid to a ‘popular’ musician from Newick who died in Turkey.

Dr John Alan Rae, who lived in Southerden, Fletching Common, died in hospital on October 19, 2020, in Antalya.

An inquest at Eastbourne Town Hall on Thursday, March 10, heard how Dr Rae was on holiday with his family.

Dr Rae’s wife, Isobel, said on their last day abroad they went swimming together in the ocean before her husband started having difficulties.

Mrs Rae said her husband told her he was struggling to breathe.

After trying to help her husband, with assistance from a man on the shore, Mrs Rae said the university lecturer was taken to hospital in an ambulance – where he died.

Daughter Emily Rae said, “He was an incredible man who meant a lot of things to many people and he left a lot of good things behind him.”

The 72-year-old’s family said he was popular at the University of Southampton, where he taught digital marketing, and students sent in tributes following his death.

Dr Rae, who was known as Alan, was also described as an avid musician who played across Sussex with his band ‘Newick Folk’.

According to Dr Rae’s GP, the Surbiton-born man had gone to the surgery in 2015 with high blood pressure.

The inquest heard a translated version of the autopsy – which suggested Dr Rae’s cause of death was heart disease and subsequent drowning.

East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said, “They have got all the evidence that they would ever need to get for drowning.”

Mr Craze came to the conclusion of natural causes.

He said, “I am quite satisfied with the evidence that I have read, the right cause of death is drowning due to a systemic heart disease.”

The coroner added, “It is a heart attack that is at fault for all of this.”