It is with great sadness that we have been informed of the passing of Paul Tiller last week, and on behalf of CS Stags 1863 and all involved with the club, we pass on our sincere condolences to his wife, Kate, his son, Stephen, and the rest of his family.

Paul' s association with what was then the Civil Service Football Club (Rugby Union) started in 2003, when his seventeen-year-old son, Stephen, one of the few Rosslyn Park youth players in that year group who had not gone to a rugby playing school (one of the others was a boy called Jobey Joyce: I wonder what happened to him?) was encouraged to come down to Dukes Meadows and play for our 3rds on a Saturday.

Paul was always there supporting his son and, away from what I think he may have felt with some justification was the slightly arrogant Rosslyn Park ‘We know-it-all’ old school tie environment, was happy to express his own love of the game by rolling up his sleeves as an administrator. He was to form the most unlikely of alliances – chalk and cheese really – with Tony Chapman, coach, and mastermind of the club’s surge up the leagues, which had begun two years earlier. I am not sure quite how quickly he was designated 1st Team Manager! 1st Team Managers are of course notoriously difficult to find, and their job specifications, well, unspecific! You make of it what you can.

Many have tried to step up to the plate, and some have delivered – but none have delivered quite like Paul Tiller, whose commitment to the cause was absolute, almost to the point of obsession! No job was too menial: he handled the communications with players at a time when emails were becoming more commonplace and mobile phones just starting to fit in pockets; he ferried players and kit; he put out all the equipment on both training and match days and gathered it back in, and was always finding he had yet again to tidy the shed. He compiled player lists and kept them up to date and was the initial type setter of the fixture card, a task which I as secretary always left to the last minute. He was the club's main photographer and its first webmaster. He composed match reports that were rarely critical of " Civil " although it was certainly not unknown for him to find targets elsewhere. The club’s progress up the leagues continued!

When Tony moved on, Paul continued his support for Nigel Rosser when we were able to regain our level 5 status via the Dover play-off game in 2010. Come rain or shine Paul was there, never seeking the limelight but getting all manner of jobs done.

He was deservedly appointed a Vice President of the club, unusually so for a non-player, and will be remembered by everyone who knew him with enormous fondness and gratitude.