OFFICIALS in Felixstowe are being urged to honour one of its most famous sons, veteran actor Sir John Mills.Former mayor Malcolm Minns has issued the call and says support for the idea is growing in the town.

OFFICIALS in Felixstowe are being urged to honour one of its most famous sons, veteran actor Sir John Mills.

Former mayor Malcolm Minns has issued the call and says support for the idea is growing in the town.

Sir John - who made more than 100 films and won an Oscar for his role in Ryan's Daughter - has spoken fondly of his early life in the town.

The son of a school teacher, the 96-year-old lived at Gainsborough Road, just off Hamilton Road and five minutes walk from the sea.

Mr Minns said: "I would like to see a statue of Sir John as a tribute to a man who is probably our most famous former resident and started his stage career here in Felixstowe.

"I have been thinking about it for some time and think it would be an excellent project for the town.

"I tend to think that in Felixstowe we don't honour those local people who have done excellent things and succeeded very well at all - we should celebrate them more and a statue is one way of doing that."

Ipswich has statues celebrating Sir Alf Ramsey, Sir Bobby Robson and the work of cartoonist Giles.

Mr Minns has been talking to a number of people in the town about the idea and he hopes that interest is growing.

Sir John started his working life at RW Paul, the corn merchants in Ipswich, in the 1920s. He caught the train every morning from Felixstowe to Ipswich, getting off at the Derby Road station and walking into town so he could save sixpence a day to help finance his dream of getting into acting.

Sir John's first steps on the stage were taken in the town as part of the fledgling Vicar's Amateur Dramatic. His first role in Felixstowe was as a gardener in The Paper Chase, staged at St John's Church Hall in Princes Road in 1927.