Somerset businessman Walter SirBrook Bailey who died peacefully at his Sound View Road residence at age 71 exactly one week before Christmas was laid to rest in a family plot in Antigua on Tuesday.Mr Bailey was the owner operator of the Somerset dry-cleaning service in the MarketPlace complex known as the Sandys Clean-R-ama. He entered the business upon retiring after 21 years in the Prison Service with the rank of Divisional Officer.Walter was born in St Kitts on February 20, 1939. He was the seventh child of the late Joseph and Eunice Bailey. At age seven he and his family moved to Antigua where Walter spent the rest of his childhood with his several siblings.He is survived by ten brothers and sisters, although several predeceased him.At age 18 Walter left Antigua for England and while working as a guard on the London Transport and Railways in 1957 he met his first Bermudian wife, Ione. She was studying nursing there. They married in 1959 and their first child Lesa was born. Lesa is now an officer in the Bermuda Police Service.The family moved to Bermuda in 1962 where son Shaun and daughters Angela and Sharazan were born. When the couple divorced in 1977, Walter took his second Bermudian wife Shirlene, in March 1981. She survived him after nearly30 years of a marriage that produced two children, Monique and Maquel. Siblings from the two families, inclusive of their mothers were a marvel in the Somerset community as to how well they got along together, living in close proximity as neighbours and friends.Walter was esteemed as a quiet spoken person, a man of a few words, but genuinely friendly. He liked to “hang with the boys”, mostly fellow prison officers and friends who like himself were avid fishermen. Later in life he became intensely interested in matters spiritual and began studying the Bible with his eldest daughter, Lesa, learning about God's purpose, giving up alcohol and smoking and dedicating is life as a Jehovah Witness. He was baptised on July8, 2008.A well attended Memorial Service was held for Mr Bailey at the Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Arts the day after Boxing Day. Among those paying last respects was the Commissioner of Prisons, Lt Col Edward Lamb, who was accompanied by several former and serving officers.It was Walter's dying wish to be buried alongside his parents in Antigua.His wife Shirlene and nearly a dozen of the children and close friends journeyed to Antigua for the last rites, which by request was attended by family only.