Born in Guernsey on 21 June 1937, Mr Sheriff was evacuated to England during the Occupation years, and later enjoyed a busy commercial life in the UK with Unilever, Lyons Tetley and Colourcare International.
He returned to Guernsey first as manager of a local building company and subsequently Le Riches Car Hire and the local branch of the NSPCC.
In 1992, he was appointed as the first chief executive of the Guernsey Hotel and Tourism Association, and soon after became a regular broadcaster with BBC Radio Guernsey, presenting a three-hour Saturday morning current affairs programme as well as the weekly Sunday phone-in.
Together with his late wife, Cherry, who died in 2022, Mr Sheriff also found time during the summer months to run a popular tea garden from their home at Lihou headland.
At the turn of the century, he entered the States of Deliberation, as Douzaine Representative for St Pierre du Bois, sitting until he retired, along with Cherry, to a new life in south-west France in 2004.
He returned to the British Isles in recent years, living in the UK.
During his time in the Assembly, Mr Sheriff served as vice-president of both the Tourist and Transport Boards, and as a member of the Broadcasting Committee, Children Board, Electricity Board and Gambling Control Committee.
Journalist and former deputy Peter Roffey knew Mr Sheriff from various walks of life and paid a warm tribute to him yesterday.
‘Brian had a warm and easygoing personality and really cared about his island home,’ he said.
‘We stayed in occasional contact, and the last time we exchanged messages was this summer, over the wildfires in France which had completely devastated an area of the country close to where he had lived for many years. It upset him deeply.’
Mr Roffey said that Mr Sheriff had an excellent sense of humour.
He recalled Mr Sheriff telling him several times that he had been one of the actors to portray Captain Birdseye in the well-known fishfinger adverts.
‘I never really knew whether to believe him, or whether he was winding me up, but looking at him it certainly seemed credible,’ said Mr Roffey.
‘I remember urging him to stand as a deputy, which he never did. When he asked if my suggestion meant I thought he would make a good deputy, I replied, “yes, but it’s more that I really like the idea of there being a Deputy Sheriff in the States”.
‘At the end of each of his radio shows Brian would always sign off with the old Guernsey expression a la perchoine. I think a lot of us are saying that to Brian today.'
Mr Sheriff’s funeral service has been provisionally scheduled for 11.30am on 16 October at Worle Crematorium, Weston-Super-Mare.
An online link to proceedings will be available.
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