BELLRINGERS of St Mary’s Church rang a quarter peal of grandsire doubles in memory of Bramshott’s Marlene Wright ,who died in a car accident on the Cayman Islands.

An inquest has been opened at Basingstoke Law Courts into the deaths of Mrs Wright, 69, her sister Pamela, 74, and brother-in-law Ian Mansell, 72, from Dockenfield. An inquest review hearing has now been listed to take place on Monday, September 11.

Tributes poured into The Herald after the accident, which happened in the east coast of the island just minutes from the holiday-makers’ hotel, only days after Ian and Pamela, described by friends as “the life and soul of the party” and Marlene had arrived in the Caribbean. 

They died instantly when their Kia Rio hire car was hit head-on by a Honda Accord shortly after 7pm on Tuesday, May 2.

The 22-year-old Jamaican driver of the Honda was also killed in the crash, which police on the island described as the worst that had ever occurred on Cayman’s roads.

Two additional passengers aged 11 and 26, who are thought to have been travelling in the open boot of the Honda, were seriously injured but survived.

Ian, Pamela, and Marlene were holidaying at Morrit’s Tortuga Club on Grand Cayman, where they had stayed during numerous previous visits to the island.

Talented artist Marlene was a good friend and neighbour to Julia Brunt, a St Mary’s Church bell ringer, and to many other people in the church and community.

The Quarter Peal was rung half-muffled, out of respect for the family and the bells were rung from the chancel crossing.

The team consisted of five St Mary’s bell ringers – Gary Beard, Julia Brunt, Jo Green, David and Di Hart, plus Roger Barber, district ringing master and tower captain from St Peter and St Paul in Hawkley, a neighbouring parish.

The six bells of St Mary’s were cast in 1784 by Thomas Janaway and apart from the lightest one, the Treble, which weights four hundredweight, they are still the same bells re-cast in the 1920s.

The Karloff family made a donation for the bells to be re-hung in the late-80s because they were worn and in need of repairs.

The event is commemorated on a plaque mounted on a wall at the church.

It is dated 16.7.1989 and states that the bells were rehung in memory of Boris Karloff, who lived in Bramshott.

The tower’s bell ringers have won a few trophies over the years and take part in competitions and trophies in call changes, method ringing, chain ringing and other striking events.