Tributes pour in for Shropshire businessman Graham Galliers

Graham Galliers, the recently-retired chairman of Galliers Homes, died following a suspected heart attack.

Mr Galliers, who lived in Condover, was a former president of the Shrewsbury Business Chamber and had held the role of chairman on several occasions.

He was born in Shrewsbury on September 9, 1942 and began working with his father Frank at the age of 16 in the house-building industry. In 1988, he founded Galliers Homes.

He had three daughters with his former wife Sandra, but one of his daughters Charlotte died in October 2011 following a battle with cancer.

Mr Galliers was also an animal lover and had four dogs and two cats.

Jane Price, his partner for almost the last ten years, said she had been contacted by hundreds of people following Mr Galliers' death. "He was a larger-than-life character. He just suddenly isn't there any more and that is really sad," she said.

"He was passionate about Shrewsbury and he was Shrewsbury through and through. It was like a stick of rock stamped through him and he would never have left. He loved the river and played on the river since he was ten years old and built his own canoe."

Nigel Clarke, director of Galliers Properties, said he had worked with Mr Galliers for 37 years.

He said the company had been inundated with tributes to Mr Galliers following his death.

"He did have a big impact on my life and we spent a lot of time together," he said.

"He will be greatly missed by all his work colleagues and many friends. Everybody is totally shocked and stunned. I was with him on Friday afternoon and he was perfectly well and in high spirits. He is going to leave a big hole in my life."

His other civic duties included being chairman of the Shrewsbury and Shropshire Waterways & Leisure Group and organising this year's Shrewsbury River Festival, which attracted around 7,000 people to The Quarry in June.

Mr Galliers was also chairman of the Shrewsbury Public Art Partnership Committee. Away from work, Mr Galliers was a long-standing member of Hagley & District Light Car Club and owned several racing cars.

Martyn Silcox, secretary of the car club, which organises the Loton Park Hill Climb, said Mr Galliers would be much-missed.

"He was larger than life. He was always one for helping everybody and he had an enormous sense of humour and knew all the jokes in the world," he said. "Everybody is gob-smacked."

"There are always things that stick in your mind, like that day the day the club was putting on a display of cars in the middle of the Telford shopping centre with all the constraints that imposed," he said.

"Graham had promised to bring his MG Metro 8R4 and he could be seen driving round and round the centre trying to find the way in.

"With the retail opening time getting ever closer he took the bull by the horns and drove up the winding pedestrian ramp, barely wider than the car, through a pair of large double doors, and down the mall to the display area. The first any of the staff knew of his presence was the burble of eight cylinders echoing through the centre."

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski said Mr Galliers had been a "colossus" in the Shrewsbury business world.

"Graham Galliers was a giant of the Shrewsbury business community and somebody I looked up to," he said. "I often used to ask for his advice on Shrewsbury matters. It is a great sadness to me and many others that he has passed away."