It is with great sadness that we share the news of the sudden death from heart failure of Stephen Bullett on 13th July 2020 at the age of 67. Stephen was a very successful professional electrical engineer who served WATSAN brilliantly as Treasurer from our inception in 2003.

By Ian and Ellie Bensted

Stephen is pictured here in 2007, with his lovely wife Julie in the background, amongst a few of the many people in Uganda that they have served so faithfully over their years of dedicated service for WATSAN. Stephen is here talking “treasurer to treasurer” with the Treasurer of the Nyakashenyi Gravity Flow Scheme.

For nearly 40 years Stephen was a chartered electrical engineer, and latterly a Team Leader, working for consultancies designing electrical systems for large industrial plants in the oil, gas, chemical and water industries. By the time of his retirement in 2014 Stephen had already given WATSAN 11 years of faithful service, early on leading us into charitable status, achieved in 2008.

As Treasurer of WATSAN for 17 years, Stephen exercised impeccable integrity throughout. His accounts were indistinguishable from those of a professional accountant. He led in the quarterly transmission of funds to Uganda, and in all our dealings with the Charity Commission. He and Julie were also massive contributors to the biennial Walk for Water events. Meticulous, hard-working, wise and always gracious, with a gentle teasing sense of humour if one of the Trustees needed correcting, Stephen will be greatly missed by us all. He will be a hard act to follow!

A convinced Christian, Stephen was an active member of St John’s Church in Locksheath, Southampton, where the Vicar, Revd. Peter Ingrams, a founding father of WATSAN, persuaded Stephen to volunteer to help. Later, when Stephen and Julie moved to Clayhidon in Devon, he quickly gained the confidence of local people and became churchwarden there. A practical man throughout, Stephen enjoyed restoring a 1950 Daimler motor car during his retirement, and took an invaluable role in the replacement and management of successive WATSAN project vehicles in Uganda.

Stephen’s premature death is a grievous loss, not only to Julie and their son Richard, relations and friends, but to the whole WATSAN family.