Community of Bournemouth on Tuesday (9) gave a heartfelt farewell to retailer Trevor Phillips, who was running Boscombe Post Office and convenience store in the area since 1959. He recently passed away at the age of 92.
A well-known figure in Boscombe, Trevor was the oldest and the last of the longest-standing newsagents in Bournemouth. He was still solidly working up until Covid and was still out delivering papers in the morning until until he was in his late-eighties.
A message was posted on the store's X account about funeral of the newsagent, which prompted a crowd of people to gather at the front of the shop on Tuesday (9).
"We will be CLOSED tomorrow from 11am for the funeral of our big boss man Trevor Phillips. He’ll be passing the shop for the final time around 12.15, we’d love to see as many people outside to give him the send off he so deserves."
Paying tribute to his father, Adam Phillips described Trevor as "humorous" and was known to crack a joke with customers.
He said, "He was a bit like all fathers, they're always on top of you but he was a fantastic bloke, well known in the area and we've had so many customers coming in over the last couple of days to pay tribute.
"He was the oldest and the last of the longest-standing newsagents in Bournemouth and he was still solidly working up until Covid and was still out delivering papers in the morning until then when he was in his late-eighties."
Trevor took over Phillips News in Christchurch Road after moving from Birmingham just after bonfire night in 1959 after he saw an advert for the agents in the Birmingham Mail. A family business, Adam later came into the business in his 20s to help his father run the shop, which in turn allowed his father to take more of a step back in recent years but didn't stop him from being involved.
Local reports quoted Adam as saying, "After Covid he was allowed to come back down here so he took a slight backseat but he always had plenty to do with the business still. He fell and broke his hip at the end of January and that was sort of the bit that really did it.
"There are customers that come in now that we delivered papers to for 60 odd years. We've got one man that comes in who was dad's first paper boy and he's in here regularly."
Since he passed, Adam said he has discovered things he never knew about his dad from people getting in touch.
