Letter: Thank You To All Those Who Helped With the Search For Our Brother

Published on: 14 Feb, 2018
Updated on: 14 Feb, 2018

Jim Middleton

From Dave and Keith Middleton

Back in the summer of last year [2017], The Guildford Dragon NEWS reported the disappearance of my brother, Jim Middleton.

On the afternoon of Sunday, 11th February we received word from the police that our brother Jim Middleton, missing for some seven months, had been found, at long last, on Ashtead Common.

Sadly it was news, that although expected, we had been dreading and it was his mortal remains that had been found.

Jim, was always our “Big Brother” even though he was actually shorter than both of us!  He was a kind man, a confirmed bachelor, hardworking and very practical and capable with his hands and was always ready to help out in any way he could.

In his last years, sadly, as his Parkinson’s Disease and early onset dementia started to affect him, he was not as capable as he had been, but on his good days, of which there were many, there was still a spark of the old Jim there and he could crack a joke and raise a smile.

Before his health failed he also was a member and instructor at the Wey Kayak Club on Riverside at Bellfields, where he was proud to have coached some of our Olympic hopefuls in the canoeing and Kayaking field.

All bar a couple of years of his life, Jim lived on Epsom Common, never moving more than a mile from the house he was born in at Stamford Green.  For the last 50 years he’d lived on the Wells Estate and loved to get out and about on the commons of Epsom and Ashtead, which he knew very well indeed.

He hated being stuck indoors and as his health began to fail, his mobility scooter meant that he could still get out in the fresh air.  It seems fitting that he should have spent his last hours outdoors on the commons that he loved.

We would like to take this opportunity to pass on our sincere and grateful thanks to everyone who has helped us in any way in the search for Jim; the police search team and investigation team, Surrey Search and Rescue, the Sussex Community Search Team volunteers, who it was that found Jim for us, all of the volunteers from the local and wider community who helped with searching and distributing flyers and posters, the local businesses and shops that allowed us to put posters in their windows, everyone who spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

We can never thank you enough for your help compassion and kindness.

Rest peacefully now Jim, our big brother.

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