John Harper Memorial (31-May-1925 - 3-Jan-1999)   

Previous Secretary, Chair and Honary President 

Bench seat memorial located at Grid Ref:  

 John Harper was an active member of Kingston Ramblers for many years as well as serving on the Committee as Secretary and held an honorary role of President suceeding Tony Parker.  John joined Ramblers with his wife Edith in 1976.  John's role as Secretary involved the preparation of the quarterly programme, which in John's time, was completed by typing the whole programme on a typewriter and duplicating and distributing the finished article.  John died as a result of a traffic accident near to Newlands Corner in which his wife and another member of Ramblers Peter Forest, were also injured.  They were on their way to join a group walk.  

This photo of John (left) is one that he had liked and a print of this is kept at home by his wife. 

John led many walks and these were often quite long.  A walk in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year was 25 miles long from Guildford to Kingston and he encouraged the faint hearted to join in by adding in the programme "downhill all the way".  John enjoyed a challenge and took part in the Tanners marathon an annual 30 mile circuit around Surrey to be completed within 10 hours.  John completed this challenge an impressive 11 times, which he aimed to complete just within the statutory time.  His 1991 time was recorded as being completed in a time of 9 hours 59 minutes!  

A bench seat memorial to John has been placed near to the YMCA Hawker Centre on the Richmond Road in Ham.  The bench overlooks the River and was a route that was frequently walked by John and his wife Edith.  The bench was requested to be placed near to John's favourite view, although not quite in that position, it is near to it.

Update October 2026

John Harper's daughters replaced the aging bench near the Hawker Centre and updated the dedications. 

The two plaques read:

In loving memory of our parents
John Harper (31 May 1925-3 January 1999) and Edith Harper (14 March 1929-31 July 2021).
"What will survive of us is love."

This plaque commemorates a bench previously on this site, erected by Kingston Ramblers in memory of John in 1999