The brother of a former advertising manager at Ham & High has paid tribute to the “much liked and much loved” north Londoner, who sadly passed away last month.

Romer Wason ended his time at this paper more than 15 years ago, having worked here for most of his adult life.

His brother, Graham Wason, remembered that when he worked for Ham & High, Romer “had a good social life and was a lot of fun”.

He said: “In his days with the paper, as I understand it, he was much liked, much loved, a good man who was always jolly.”

Although Romer spent most of his working life at Ham and High, his first job was as a route planner for London Transport, the predecessor of Transport for London.

Graham said that this job, which Romer took immediately after leaving school, came out of a childhood passion for buses.

He explained: “When we were kids his passion was buses, mine was cars.

“I used to collect dinky toys, the little metallic cars, which were popular with kids in the 1950s and 60s.

“So Romer collected buses, and he had a huge collection of these little metal buses and he used to plan the routes for them.

“He used to build little kind of indicator boards which he would attach to the front of the buses and be able to scroll them through.”

But after a decade of working for London Transport, Graham said Romer’s childhood passion had “run out”.

And Romer’s time as an advertising manager at Ham and High was defined not by public transport, but by property, according to his brother.

Graham said: “[He] obviously had to have good rapport with estate agents who were probably about the biggest customer [at the time].”

After retiring from the paper, Romer never returned to full-time work, but took various “ad hoc” driving roles, including delivering classic cars around the country.

Romer sadly died at the age of 77 on August 8 after a period of ill health, and is survived by his daughter, Anna Wason-McPhee, and Graham.

His family will be holding a funeral and celebration of his life on September 22 at Golders Green Crematorium.

Graham said that all are welcome but that it would be helpful to know who is planning to attend. 

He added that anyone can contact him on 07977 040579 if they would like to say something at the funeral, or share a memory of Romer for the eulogy.