Beadnell resident Tony Willis passes away after long and colourful life

He retired to the coastal village in 2010 with wife, Catherine, after a life full of adventure.

Tony’s early adulthood was spent serving in what was called West Riding Constabulary before it became West Yorkshire Police.

Starting as a bobby on the beat, he later joined CID and was involved in the investigations into some infamous and grisly murders.

Tony was on the periphery of perhaps the most infamous of them all – the Moors murders, which saw Ian Brady and Myra Hindley kidnap and murder young children before burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor.

No less gruesome, but an investigation in which Tony played more than a peripheral role, was the series of armed robberies and murders by Donald Neilson, who was dubbed the Black Panther in the media.

In 1974, he and Catherine, along with some friends, decided to start a new life in Australia. However, in late 1974, Australia went into a deep recession, leading the Government to stop all immigration to the country.

With Australia out, New Zealand too far away but a desire for sun, sand and sea, South Africa presented itself as the best option.

After a spell in South Africa, the couple went north to Bulawayo in Rhodesia where Tony got a job with Rhodesian Railways and Catherine started working for Radio Jacaranda.

At this time, the country was in the midst of the Rhodesian Bush War, the civil war.

It was something that Tony experienced first-hand when he got a new job in the construction industry and moved to an area close to the Mozambique border.

As part of his kit while building the road, he was issued with an FN rifle, an Uzi sub-machine gun and a Browning high-power pistol and travelled around in mine-proof vehicles.

Tony himself was even involved in one firefight.

Security fears meant that they returned to South Africa in 1978.

Later, Tony was head-hunted by a Swiss construction company to work in Botswana where he became friends with George Adamson, of Born Free fame, and the Khama family.

The couple returned to South Africa when Tony was head-hunted back to Concor, the construction company where he eventually became a director, while his wife worked for a number of different airlines, some African as well as British Airways.

After 20 years, Tony left to set up his own management consultancy. His company, Aviation Global Solutions, was primarily aviation-related, but also raised venture capital for other projects.

Tony was also involved in a project called Mobile Genius, which was a payments system using mobile phones, but it struggled to attract the interest of the banks at the time.

Safety became a concern for the couple again after Tony was hijacked at gunpoint, his wife suffered two smash and grabs, three vehicles were stolen, they were burgled, another intruder was disturbed breaking in and a friend was shot and almost died.

And so it was that they moved back to the UK and settled in Beadnell, allowing Tony to turn to writing. He was also a former Gazette columnist.