We need to report the sad news that one of our founder members, Antonie Michael McDaniel has recently passed away. Known to us all as Mac, he was a founder member of TMAEG. Today, we are a thriving organisation pursuing numerous environmental initiatives, and seemingly going from strength to strength. But in the spring of 2011 things looked very different. Our village centre faced the prospect of huge, destructive change which would have destroyed the central garden to the rear of One Stop and replaced it with a major car park. Had this happened, the double avenue of silver maples would have been removed – looking back it is almost unbelievable that such action was even contemplated.
In that period, just 18 months ago, resistance was growing to that ill conceived proposal, albeit amidst a feeling of considerable uncertainty as to whether our protests could prevail. Mac was one of those prepared to stick his head above the parapet and support the fledgling environmental group. He made representations to the Councils and was at the inaugural meeting of our group on 20 March 2011, held outdoors in the midst of the area that we sought to save.
From then on Mac maintained a keen interest in our developing group. He took part in last summer’s Treasure Hunt, and only a few days before he left us we were able to show him the progress being made on the Stream Project.
Mac was a talented amateur photographer and trees and nature were the main subjects for the beautiful black and white pictures which he developed himself. The wintery scene below – of the bridge at the outlet end of the Stone Hill pond – was taken on one of his typically brisk walks around Two Mile Ash.
As was revealed in the eulogy at his funeral on 5 November, Mac was a man of many parts. He served in the Royal Engineers, spending several years in Germany in the 1950s, a period in which he met Ingrid who was to become his wife. They became residents of Two Mile Ash in the mid 1990s and took on an allotment which proved a great joy to them. As if that commitment wasn’t enough, Mac assumed the chairmanship of the allotments governing body and helped steer the organisation through some difficult times.
Mac was a nice man, always positive, whose fine qualities we will miss.