It was with great sadness that the community of Porthleven learnt of the death of one of its own last month.

Mike Carter was a former town councillor, founding member of Porthleven Museum and involved with the Porthleven branch of the RNLI for 30 years.

He died in hospital on November 17, leaving the port in mourning.

Announcing the sad news, Porthleven Museum said: “It is with great sadness that Porthleven Museum announce that Mike Carter, one of the original founders of the museum, passed away peacefully at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on November 17, 2023.

“Mike was an amazing man with a wide range of talents and abilities. He will be hugely missed by his wife Joan and Porthleven as a whole.

“All of our thoughts go out to Joan at this time.

“RIP Mike, you are a true legend.”

Leslie Michael Carter, to give his full name, was born in 1948 and moved to Porthleven with his wife Joan in July 1989, having previously visited the port for a break and were told about a property coming on the market.

After fully committing to life in his new home, Mike was later delighted to discover, in 2021, that he in fact had Cornish heritage himself, via his great grandfather, who was born in St Columb but moved up country.

One generation back beyond that was his great-great-grandmother, who was born in 1852 in St Minver and who had ancestors going back as far as 1541, still in St Minver.

Mike was involved with the Porthleven branch of the RNLI for 30 years, later becoming vice president and then president for three years before stepping down in 2020. By that point the branch had raised £250,000 for the charity.

He first became involved when he joined Stan Lloyd working on the harbour lights in 1989, and they started chatting about Lifeboat Day. At that time the committee was without a treasurer, due to the previous one being posted from RNAS Culdrose.

With some experience in the area, Mike volunteered to take on the task. His first Lifeboat Day was the summer of 1990, when it was then known as the Helston and Porthleven Branch of the RNLI.

A while later he suggested Porthleven should form its own committee and the Porthleven Lifeboat Branch was founded.

Mike also served on Porthleven Town Council, along with his wife Joan, who went on to become town clerk for a time.

During his time on the council, he worked with Trevor Osborne to create the Porthleven Millennium Trust as a charitable trust.

He also introduced the Discover Porthleven promotion, working with Kerrier District Council, and was behind the Porthleven website.

Later he was asked to create a report, with photographic evidence, on the state of the harbour at that time, for a meeting between Trevor Osborne, Kerrier District Council and the then county council.

Having prepared the report, the idea came to him for a museum for Porthleven. Together with Alan Ziemann, they formed Porthleven Museum, later joined by others to build the foundations of what it is today.

He previously spoke about his hope that it would become a lasting legacy for future generations of Porthleven.