Daffodils are lighting up a seaside town after a dying businessman left his money so a MILLION bulbs could be planted there – because he liked the resort so much.
Former pilot Keith Owen left his £2.3m fortune to the resort of Sidmouth in Devon to create a “valley of a million bulbs”.
His dying wish was fulfilled – and the sweeping swathes of stunning daffodils illuminate the town each spring.
Keith Owen
In 2007, aged 69, Owen was given just weeks to live from lung cancer and asked the resort, which he regarded as paradise, to use his money to keep the area “beautiful”.
Owen, who made his wealth in investment banking, stated that the capital should remain untouched but each year the estimated £120,000 interest should be spent on schemes to brighten up Sidmouth and the neighbouring villages of Sidford and Sidbury.
The UK’s oldest civic society, the Sid Vale Association (SVA), launched the project in 2013 to plant more than 400,000 bulbs.
Bulbs team leader John Townsend said: “In the first year, we planted 178,000 bulbs and in 2014 we planted 220,000.
“One million was Keith’s amazing dream and we are doing our best to fulfil his last wish.
“I believe this is the widest community project ever to happen in the Sid Valley.
“We have had planting groups of varying ages, from a young kid of two, up to a lady I know of 90, who got involved.
“You get nothing out of this other than to see the flowers when they are in bloom.”
The project has seen more than 300 people and 50 groups taking part.
SVA president, the Reverend Handel Bennett, said: “Keith knew exactly what he was doing.
“He wanted to encourage philanthropy and this has happened without people realising they are being philanthropic.”
Some of the one million bulbs donated by Canadian banker Keith Owen
Mr Owen was born in Totnes and became an RAF pilot before leaving in 1976 to start a new life and career in finance in Canada.
He moved to Ottawa and became a Canadian citizen but despite travelling all over the world he regularly returned to Sidmouth where his mother had retired describing it as the “picture-perfect English resort”.
He was visiting the area in October 2007 when he was told he had been struck down by lung cancer – and had just eight weeks to live.
Mr Owen, who was divorced and had no children, urgently gathered together civic leaders to discuss his gift to the town before dramatically changing his will at the last minute.
The rich businessman and philanthropist left the people of Sidmouth his retirement fund, pension and a string of properties.
Keith wasn’t the only fan of Sidmouth. In 1819, the future Queen Victoria was taken there on holiday as a baby.
Poet Sir John Betjeman once described it as ‘a town caught still in a timeless charm’ and it still attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year.
