Former Shropshire teacher and snuff-taking champion dies
A former teacher and a 1980s UK snuff-taking champion from Newport has died.
Peter Kay, 73, spent 25 years at The Grove School, in Market Drayton.
In the 1980s he took up competitive snuff taking and was named West of England champion several times over.
He was eventually crowned United Kingdom champion, winning the competition in record time and becoming the first person to ever hold the two major British titles together. But he gave up when he was told his respiratory problems would not be helped by continuing to take snuff.
During his teaching career Peter was on the exam team for the London Examinations Board, and mentored the in-service training of student teachers when he worked with the University of Keele.
He retired in the late 1990s, leaving behind a teaching career spanning five decades which began at The Abraham Darby School at the end of the 1960s.
Mr Kay was a member of the Newport Literary Institute 1978 until his death.
He joined the committee in 1981, serving 12 years as chairman, and in 2011 was elected club President, which he described as the ‘greatest honor of my life’.
A private funeral will be held at Newport Cemetery on Friday (August 21).
His funeral cortege will pass the Newport Literary Institute, in High Street, at 2.15pm, for anyone wishing to pay their respects.
