TRIBUTES have been paid to a character of the community, later known by his nickname – the Strawberry King.

Tommy Martin was a face well known throughout Farnham, but mainly recognised for his work on his family’s fruit and vegetable stall in Castle Street in Farnham.

Tommy’s sister, Julie Welch, spoke of his love for the greengrocery business, which was a family affair.

Julie said: “It was all the family on the stall – my gran came down from London and opened it and then we all worked there.”

Tommy’s gran opened the stall in 1942 after they were “bombed out in London and came down to Farnham”.

One of four siblings, Tommy worked on the stall alongside Julie and brothers John and Peter.

She said: “We all worked in the greengrocery business, but in latter years Tommy diversified. He went off and had a wholesale business in the Western International Market and that’s how he came to do the strawberries. He used to get them locally from a farm.”

It was his work selling the fruit that earned Tommy the nickname ‘Strawberry King’.

Julie said: “He was big – very big, 6ft 6in –and was liked by a lot of people. He had a lot of friends.”

Tommy had moved away to Somerset, but was looking to move back to Farnham after realising it was “quite far away”.

In December, Tommy visited Virginia Water to help a friend in the greengrocer trade, where he caught Covid.

He was taken ill the first Saturday after Christmas before testing positive for Covid. He died on January 27, aged 71.

But Julie recognised that despite catching Covid, Tommy loved the time he spent helping his friend.

She said: He met all his old friends and he went to Western International Market and just loved every bit of it – his happiest place was Western International Market.

“As children we all knew people in the greengrocery trade and Tommy knew a lot of people who cared a lot about him and really liked him – he was just Tommy, larger than life.”