Tony Haigh died peacefully at home on Saturday February 27, aged 70.

Tony joined Glaneirw House Community in Blaenporth in the mid-1970s as a young man. He was deeply committed to community life where he made many friends and he contributed with passion to the goals of self-sufficiency. He committed to integration with the Welsh language, becoming fluent and campaigning with the the Welsh Language Society.

Tony’s legacy at Glaneirw (now privately owned) includes a plantation of hundreds of trees. He was a self trained plumber and converted and installed Rayburn cookers for many years.

Tony, a mathematician by training, was a highly accomplished chess player. As a member of the Cardigan Chess Club he shared in many of their triumphs, including in 2013 travelling to Greece with the team to take part in the European Chess Club cup competition.

For the past 22 years Tony lived at Brithdir Mawr, a small community in Newport, Pembrokeshire where he became the senior member, tending his vegetables and utilising his many years of wisdom regarding community life. There he shared with the other members of the community his great interest in astronomy, bringing out his telescope on occasions to demonstrate particular planetary phenomena. This interest took him to Brittany in 1999 on his bicycle to witness the great eclipse.

He is survived by his brother Mick, his niece Ellie and her children, and an uncle in north Wales. The community where he lived was like family to him, and he would also keep in touch with old friends with occasional visits on his bicycle or in his battered but sturdy little car, and latterly with Zoom conversations.

Tony lived a minimalist life, treading softly on the Earth and enjoying simple pleasures. When he discovered in 2020 that he had inoperable cancer he calmly accepted that his life would soon come to its close, and he was able to embrace this. Fortunately he did not suffer pain, and with devoted care from Eve and other members of Brithdir Mawr community during his last weeks he was able to remain comfortable and he passed peacefully away surrounded by friends.

His wish for a simple burial at Brithdir Mawr will be honoured by the community, and there will be a proper celebration of his life when current restrictions allow.