Young dad dies in crash
A POPULAR Gaywood lorry driver and former soldier, who drove petrol tankers during a UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, was killed tragically in a car crash on Friday.
Martin Perryman (28), a father of two, of Reffley Lane, was certified dead at the scene, after his green Vauxhall Astra was in collision with a silver Peugeot 306 on the A148 between Hillington and Harpley at 11am.
The 74-year-old driver of the Peugeot, Mr Gordon Saunders, of Northamptonshire, was also certified dead at the scene and his wife Margaret (73) was taken to King's Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital with serious injuries.
Her condition was yesterday said to be stable.
The road was blocked for approximately one-and-a-half hours while firefighters from Lynn, Massingham and Sandringham cleared the scene.
Since the accident, devastated friends of Mr Perryman have left flowers, messages and even a model lorry tributes at the site to the man they knew as Pez.
The young father, who his family described as a great family man, was in the Royal Corps of Transport and survived makeshift roads and gun fire in Bosnia, for which he received a UN peacekeeping medal.
His mother Rosemary Dowle (55), of Grimston, said her son the youngest of four was "full of life and thoroughly enjoyed it".
She added he was a practical joker, who was in the army for more than six years when he learned to drive every vehicle from a motorbike to a lorry.
He attended Fairstead Primary and Springwood High School until the age of 16 when he joined the army.
As a child he won medals and trophies for motorcycle scrambling a passion he shared with his father John (56) who fixed the bikes.
As a soldier, he was stationed at Colchester and spent two years in Germany and time in the USA and Bosnia.
He always kept in touch with his mother, his father, his sister Teresa Bailey (30), his brothers Allan (32) and Paul (29) and his stepfather Ken (50) with letters and phone calls.
Mrs Bailey, of South Wootton, remembered a time when Martin called home while barricaded in a Bosnian town and the family could hear gunfire in the background, but she said he was unfazed.
"I don't think it was until he got back and showed us photos of bombed buses and bullet-ridden houses that we realised how dangerous it was.
"He often lived in shacks and without running water. He used to ask us to send goodies in the post and threw sweets out the back of the lorry to the Bosnian kids," she added.
"He lived life to the full all those clich s but that was Martin.
"He always laughed and was jolly.
"He didn't take anything seriously."
His two children Jamie (6) and Shaun (3) live with their mum in Daventry, Northamptonshire, but he loved them dearly and had just redecorated a two-bedroomed flat in Reffley Lane with a children's room for their visits.
His sister said he was always active and "never still."
She added: "It was as if he'd had a premonition.
"He finished decorating his flat the day before he died, his tenancy had just come through, he'd sorted out all his paperwork and had a new girlfriend. He'd just got his life in order."
His funeral is at 9.15am on Tuesday, May 7, at Mintlyn Crematorium.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North
