Tributes paid to former manager

A much-loved family man who played an active role in the Hastings and St Leonards community has passed away.
Chris Sherwood SUS-180523-151924001Chris Sherwood SUS-180523-151924001
Chris Sherwood SUS-180523-151924001

Chris Sherwood was a well-known face around town, having worked as the advertisement manager for the Hastings and St Leonards Observer for almost 25 years.

His family say he will be best remembered for his ‘ever-welcome smile and his enthusiastic and professional approach in all that he was involved in’.

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Chris moved to Hastings aged six and attended Priory Road Secondary School, before joining the Hastings Observer in 1959 as an advertisement clerk. He was promoted to sales executive two years later. In 1966, at age 21, he was appointed advertisement and circulation manager of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, and later was responsible for designing the Observer’s carnival float entry, which won first place three times around the area.

In 1971, he organised and supervised the introduction of the paper’s first telephone sales bank. Five years later, he took full responsibility for advertisement sections of the Bexhill-on-Sea Observer and continued to run both papers until 1988, when the company’s structural changes placed him in charge of the Bexhill division of the newspaper group.

Chris left the company in 1991 to start his own business – CCS Effective Marketing.

He was well-known as marketing manager for the Trustees of the Central Cricket Ground, then situated at Priory Meadow. He was also publicity officer for the Hastings Week Committee, producing the Hastings Week programme for nine years, and a consultant to the Fellowship of St Nicholas.

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Despite reaching retirement age, Chris was determined to carry on working and later branched into rental properties, working for Dawson Harden and Tanton and AAH Pharmaceuticals in their distribution division.

His hobbies included bowls, squash and chess. He belonged to St Leonards Rotary Club and was president in 1995/96. He also joined Hastings and St Leonards Probus Club in 2014, in which he took an active part as chairman.

Chris leaves behind his wife Carole, sons Stephen and Mark, daughter Sam and six grandsons – Jake, Scott, Joe, Samuel, Jamie and Danny.

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