Professional golfer and respected teacher Edwin Jackson, known for his skill in the vanishing art of repairing and restoring clubs, has died at the age of 79.

London-born Mr Jackson settled in Bermuda 46 years ago on a whim and initiated generations into a sport that flourished into a local industry.

For decades, he worked out of a simple shack on the old Horizons golf course adorned with vintage clubs and relics of the game.

“His old workshop is still there — his stuff has been given away but the shop hasn’t changed at all,” said Brendan “Bees” Ingham, the golf champion and former general manager of Horizons.

The nine-hole course in Paget served as Mr Jackson’s second home, even after the course itself closed down in 2010.

“Edwin was amazing, one of a kind; he just enjoyed what he was doing,” Mr Ingham said. “There’s not many left who did it, and none left in Bermuda.” Former MP and avid golfer Kim Swan recalled him as a “master craftsman” who was influential in the development of golf in Bermuda.

“Edwin was a very friendly, delightful fellow, and I always called upon him to have my clubs repaired when I was a golf professional at St George’s, and played amateur golf in the 1970s,” Mr Swan said.

“Back in the day, clubs were wooden, and repairing and restoring them was paramount; it was not the throwaway society of today — and knowing the equipment lent itself to teaching. Edwin taught in simple terms, and I say that respectfully, because simple is better. He had that patient bedside manner with teaching that made you feel comfortable.

“Edwin was very likeable and you could not go to his shack and be out of there immediately. His workshop was the golfer’s version of a barbershop: you went when you needed to go and you were never in a hurry to leave. He knew a great deal of history and his memorabilia often led to conversations.”

Mr Jackson “got a lot of people playing for the first time”, Mr Swan added, calling him “a very important person in the industry”.

Fellow golf pro Keith Pearman, also skilled at restoring clubs, said Mr Jackson had been one of Bermuda’s first golf repair experts back in the 1960s, as well as an enthusiastic teacher.

“Back in that time, everybody did not play golf as they do today; it was for the privileged in that era,” Mr Pearman said. “He was nice to be around and talk history.”

Veteran golfer Danny Fagundo remembered Mr Jackson as “extremely talented with his hands — he fixed clubs and just about anything else the good lord put in his hands; he fixed up antique furniture and carved cedar”. He was also known for his wooden pen stands, which were carved in the shape of a golf club head.

Initially becoming acquainted with Mr Jackson as a teacher, Mr Fagundo came to know him as a musician skilled with the bagpipes and an animal lover who kept tame birds as pets, and was devoted to feeding the feral cats around Horizons.

“Quite often I would take cat food when I went to get grips put on my clubs. He trusted me enough to give me the combination to that shed.”

Mr Jackson, who is survived by his wife Jane, happened upon Bermuda in 1968 on his way to California, where he had planned to settle on a career either in insurance, or professional golf.

When his flight was delayed, Mr Jackson overnighted at the Mid Ocean Club, and decided to remain on the island.

“You only need to step outside to see why I stayed — it’s beautiful,” he told The Royal Gazette in 2011.

Mr Jackson had taken to golf as a youngster in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a time when it was seen as “a selfish sport” instead of a team game. His love of carpentry led him to learn about repairing clubs — telling this newspaper that “nobody knew anything about golf clubs or what to do with them, so I started with my own — which would have been made of hickory”.

As his notoriety grew, members at his London club, the Royal Mid-Surrey in Richmond, began to request his work, he said.

“They started to see finishes on clubs which they had never seen before and it just took off from there.”

Mr Ingham recalled Mr Jackson’s skill in “bringing a finish up on an old iron that you’d never seen before”.

Initially employed at the Mid Ocean Club and working at the Sportsman’s Shop, Mr Jackson set up a net and a driving range and taught out of a number of Hamilton premises.

“He wasn’t too happy where he was, so I said to him, why not come up to Horizons? I’ve got a place; there’s no rent,” Mr Ingham recalled.

“That pleased him, and that’s where he started to talk to his work.”

In a 2002 interview, Mr Jackson even said he hoped to die while doing his beloved work, adding: “That would be the ideal dream. I know I would never want to retire.”