We are sad to report that our treasurer from 2014 to 2024, Norman Edward Smith, died aged 86 on 25th April in Warneton, Belgium. Father of Johanna Taylor-Smith and her late twin brother Martin Smith, Norman was an accountant and financial management consultant. He was first employed as an industrial accountant by companies in London and Kent before moving to France in 1982. Initially employed by a firm run by British accountants in Paris, he handled the business of a number of clients in Northern France, one of whom was the pioneering French hotel barge operator John Liley. He moved north to Lille in 1988 to set up his own business. Initially self-employed, he founded Transmanche Consultants in 1997. He joined IWI in 2009, attended the World Canals Conference in Groningen in 2011, and became treasurer in 2014. His interest in inland waterways had developed during hire boat holidays in England with his parents. In Northern France and Belgium, he regularly observed traffic along the river Lys, where he lived on the Belgian side until his death. He was also a music lover, devoted to the Lille National Orchestra and its musicians, promoting their talents through the association Chambre à Part. The funeral service will be held on 30th April, at 3 pm, in the ceremony hall of Rotsaert Funeral Home in Warneton. A celebration of his life’s involvement in organisations promoting his passions – classical music and inland waterways – will be held in Lille in June (date to be announced). The family would welcome donations to IWI (as well as to the classical music association Chambre à Part in Lille).
