Tributes to Mullion business owner after sudden death

John Rule, a Mullion business owner and former parish councillor who was a key member of a number of organisations in the village, died peacefully, but without warning, on Tuesday last week.

He was the husband of parish and Cornwall Councillor Carolyn Rule, who said the whole village had been left shocked.

She told the Packet: “Everyone seems to be very frightened, as I am, because it was so sudden.

“He was a wonderful man. He was a gentleman but also a gentle man. He would do anything for anybody, but usually quietly.”

Carolyn said she had received more than 100 cards containing messages of support since John’s death.

“People are so kind and it does help,” she said. “It can’t bring him back but it’s nice to know other people cared about him as well as me.”

A former member of the parish council, in later years John has supported Carolyn through her work on both the parish council and as a Cornwall Councillor for Mullion and Grade Ruan.

Thanks to his background on the council he could offer basic support to people ringing for help, advising them on who they can contact.

“If I’m at County Hall he’s looking after people who ring for advice. He could often signpost people to what they needed.

“That will be the hole – he was my rock really,” said Carolyn.

John was a Mullion man through and through, having been born in the village and never moved away.

He was a pupil at Mullion Primary School and Helston Secondary School in Penrose Road, before becoming an apprentice at his father’s building firm, JV Rule & Son, as a master mason.

When his father retired John took over the business, in 1984.

He has also delighted generations of young children, however, through kite making business Cornish Kites, which he started with Carolyn in 1976.

For the last few years he has been the one running the business, with Carolyn kept busy through her council work.

Not only did he make the kites, but also carried out repairs and fronted the shop.

Carolyn said: “We have been going so long with the kites we were getting people in saying, ‘You sold me my first kite and now I want one for my children.’ They became like friends coming back year after year.”

The business and shop will continue to run for the time being.

The kites also linked with his other great passion: amateur radio.

John and Carolyn were among the founder members of the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club, and trustees of the Marconi Centre at Poldhu, where the club is now based.

It started life, however, at Goonhilly before the dedicated centre was developed in the 1990s and opened in 2001.

John used to make kites to lift radio aerials – effectively a length of wire – into the air to get signal; the traditional way that was used by Marconi when he sent his first radio message from Canada in 1902.

Affectionately describing her husband as “a real anorak”, Carolyn said John also loved trains in any form – whether they were the real version or as a model, with the couple’s garden containing a working train set.

John and Carolyn have two children, Christopher and Lowenna, and five grandchildren.

“He’s left a terrific legacy with our children and grandchildren. This is the first time I’ve been on my own and they’ve been here with me. And the grandchildren have been a lifesaver – they keep you going,” she said.

The couple met at Mullion Youth Club, which John was chairman of aged 16. He was a key figure in raising funds to develop a youth centre, in the building where the YMCA is now based.

Carolyn’s parents, Reg and Sylvia Freeman, were the club leaders and Carolyn used to go with them. She hit it off with John, despite being four years younger.

They became engaged when Carolyn was 19 and John was 23, marrying a year later.

A funeral service for John will take place next Monday, January 26, at 11.30am at Mullion Methodist Church, conducted by the Rev Steve Swann.

This will be followed by interment at Mullion’s cemetery, before refreshments back at the chapel.