THE FORMER landlord of a pub which was saved from conversion into a home following a village campaign has died after collapsing while playing golf.Mike Cornabe left the White Hart pub at Stradbroke a few months ago to take over the Green Man at Topplesfield, near Halstead.

By David Green

THE FORMER landlord of a pub which was saved from conversion into a home following a village campaign has died after collapsing while playing golf.

Mike Cornabe left the White Hart pub at Stradbroke a few months ago to take over the Green Man at Topplesfield, near Halstead.

Mr Cornabe and his family had been enjoying a short break at Center Parcs at Elveden, near Thetford, to celebrate his 65th birthday when he collapsed on the golf course.

The East Anglian Air Ambulance, for which he had raised money at both his pubs, attended the scene but he was eventually taken by road to West Suffolk Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Mr Cornabe, who also raised money at his pubs for the RNLI, leaves a wife, Jacqui, three children, David, Claire and Zoe, and a grandson, Harry.

David Cornabe said yesterday, that although his father had suffered a heart attack two years previously the sudden death had been a shock.

“Over the two years he had learned to cope with his heart condition and we had tended to put it to the back of our minds,” he said.

“Although everybody was shocked, we were grateful that dad went out on a high.”

He added that his father and mother and his two sisters, Claire and Zoe, had formerly run a majorette troupe in Colchester called The Silhouettes and some of its former members were expected to attend the funeral - at Colchester Crematorium at 11 am on Monday .

The service will be taken by Rev David Streeter, rector of Stradbroke.

Donations to the East Anglian Air Ambulance are being invited in Mr Cornabe's memory - care of Hunnaball Funeral Directors, 41 Mersea Road, Colchester.