WARM tributes were paid last night to a popular and hard-working community stalwart who died in an accident at a Northumberland quarry over the weekend.
Davie Hume, 58, was pronounced dead in hospital after being pulled out of a water-filled hole at Longhoughton Quarry near Alnwick on Saturday afternoon.
He had been operating an excavating machine which, for reasons currently under investigation, went into the hole which filled with water.
Mr Hume, a divorcee who lived alone in Chapel Lands, Alnwick, was brought out and treated by paramedics at the scene, before being flown by helicopter to Wansbeck General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later in the afternoon. He had been doing some weekend work for his long-time friend and employer, David Purvis, who runs a plant hire and civil engineering business, and operates Longhoughton Quarry under a lease from the Duke of Northumberland’s business wing, Northumberland Estates.
Mr Hume, who had also worked for many years in the civilian stores unit at RAF Boulmer, was a key member of the dedicated band of unpaid volunteers who put up Alnwick’s impressive Christmas lights display every year.
He was the hoist operator and regarded as the unofficial foreman of the team, of which he had been a member for 15 years.
Over recent weeks he and his fellow volunteers had given up their spare time to erect this year’s display, which will be switched on by the Duke on Friday evening.
Last night Gordon Castle, chairman of the Alnwick Christmas Lights’ Committee and a long-standing friend and colleague of Mr Hume, said: “We are a close-knit team and are absolutely devastated by Davie’s death.
“He will be a very tough man to replace because of his absolute reliability and commitment to the job.
