Tributes paid to 'cheeky chap' engineer who loved the outdoors and helped the elderly

The widow of an electrician and engineer who drowned on holiday has paid tribute to the ‘cheeky chap’ who loved the outdoors.

Iain Farrell died aged 49 after he ran into difficulties while coasteering – jumping into the sea and swimming along rocky outcrops – in Swanage in May.

He is survived by his wife Amanda and two teenage sons.

Iain worked as an engineer at Heathrow Airport and had also started his own company, working as an electrician.

“He did set up his own little business a couple of years ago,” said Amanda.

“He did a lot of work for some people around here, and some elderly people.

“He’d spend so much time with them because elderly people just want to chat. He’d just spend an hour chatting with them, he was good with people like that.

“I don’t know what it was about the elderly but he

always had time for them.”

Back at home in Maidenhead, Iain was often laughing and having a 'giggle' with his family.

“He had a cheeky smile,” Amanda said. “He had a cheeky little way with him, he was a cheeky chap.”

“He liked a bit of a giggle, he was a bit of a wind-up merchant.”

Iain’s real passion, though, was the outdoors. Growing up on a farm in Dorney, he loved spending time outside and a few years ago he bought a Volkswagen campervan, which he had been doing up.

“When we were growing up we were just always outside, said Amanda.

“We were never stuck

indoors, so he just wanted the same for the boys, to get them off their gadgets, enjoy the outdoors really.”

Iain regularly took his two teenage sons out on trips into the wild, going camping, learning bushcraft, and going on adventures in the campervan.

“They did lots of camping, said Amanda.

“When he bought the campervan that was his passion and his project with the boys.

“Sometimes they’d get

together and do bits up on it, go away for weekends, do a bit of camping, a bit of travelling around, he loved it. They were sleeping in hammocks at one point.”

After the funeral took place last week, Amanda and her two sons are now doing their best to move on, taking it one day at a time, with help and support from family and friends.