This site is a tribute to Pat, who was born 9th February 1941, To William and Hilda Collier at ‘Royden’ Salisbury Road, Blandford. Brother to Roy and Terry, Pat didn’t know his father as he was lost at sea serving his country during the Second World War.

Pat was one of the first secondary modern schoolboys from Dorset to be selected to attend an outward-bound mountain school in Ullswater, Lake District. Pat was always a keen football player, and his school team won the Pitman and Davidson trophy a county cup competition for all Dorset schools.

Pat left school at 15 and started working at Flight Refuelling initially at Tarrant Rushton airfield and then 5 years later the company moved to Wimborne, where Pat remained, Pat had the honour of meeting Margaret Thatcher during a visit to the factory during the Falklands Conflict. Pat eventually took early retirement at the age of 63 after 48 years of service with Flights, later known as Cobham Engineering working his way up to Superintendent and in charge of several workshops, on his retirement he was awarded a Lifetime Honorary Membership to Cobham Sports and Social Club.

Pat had two sons Karl and Martin with his first wife Peggy and three further sons with Shirley, Russell, then sadly they had a still born baby and then finally Lee. Shirley and Pat have been married for 54 years.

Pat was a very proud Grandfather and Great Grandfather to 13 Grandchildren and 12 Great Grandchildren making Christmas’s and birthdays a very expensive time!

Pat’s love of sports continued throughout his life where he was a big speedway fan, regularly watching Poole Pirates. He was a very good badminton player and well known for keeping a comb down his sock to comb his hair during points, Pat played skittles for the Blandford RBL Legionaries team for many years and during his retirement he took up golf, a sport that he wasn’t that great at!! .... But his main love was always football, known as a hard tough tackling defender, where he played for Flight Refuelling FC for many years before turning his attention to managing the reserves, and being part of the clubs committee in a number of roles and a keen fundraiser for the club for many years. In the last 10 years Pat was a season ticket holder at AFC Bournemouth and shared his weekends between watching Bournemouth and Flights now known as Merley Cobham Sports FC.

During 1985 Pat and his good friend Gerry Bryant started a youth football team as Lee and Gerry’s son Scott had no local team to play for, Blandford RBL was started and the club who are now Blandford Youth currently have 25 teams.

After Pat retired from Flight Refuelling, his love of driving lead him to take on a part time job with a local family run company called Astral where he worked right up until his 80th birthday when he finally decided it was time to fully retire ......

Over the years Pat and Shirley loved their holidays with the boys and also spent many times away with great friends John & Lil and Rowena & Billy, whether it being going camping, or on cruises. with his favourite holiday being a trip to Canada.

Pat was diagnosed with Lewy Bodies Dementia in September 2022, Pat remained at home with Shirley looking after him up till 8 weeks prior to his passing, at the start of August Pat moved into Ferndown Manor Care Home as his needs were becoming too much to be at home, after 2 weeks within the home he had a fall one evening hitting his head, he then spent the final 6 weeks within Bournemouth Hospital. Pat finally passed on the morning of Tuesday 26th September peacefully in his sleep.

He is much loved and will always be remembered.