Robert James Neil (6 Dec 1968 - 21 May 2026)

In loving memory of Robert James Neil who sadly passed away on 21st May 2026

It is with a huge sense of loss that I have to tell you that Rob lost his year-long battle with cancer while being cared for at the Pilgrims Hospice in Ashford on Thursday 21 May.

Known to family and friends as the ultimate ‘foodie’, the world’s number one Nena and Toyah fan, a devoted dad and granddad and the most loyal of colleagues, Rob’s huge personality will ensure his memory lives on for ever.

Rob was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April of last year and spent a year undergoing treatment, but the disease spread quickly and despite his best efforts to fight it he spent his last days in the care of the wonderful Pilgrims Hospice team. They quickly managed to get his pain under control to make his last days more comfortable.

I have been overwhelmed by the love shown to me and the tributes paid to Rob by his friends and by his former work colleagues, many from Ashford Borough Council, where he spent some 15 years in senior IT posts.

While he made many great friends amongst his council colleagues, Rob achieved a long-held ambition in 2015 when he set up Accordio Ltd and began providing strategic ICT consultancy to local authorities including Tower Hamlets, Kent County Council, West Lancashire Borough Council and Norfolk County Council.

His business success followed a high-flying career at Ashford, which he joined in 2001 as Head of ICT and Customer Services before becoming Chief Information Officer in 2010.

Rob was born in Dover in 1968 and went to Dover Grammar School for Boys before being awarded a BSc Hons in computing science from the University of East Anglia followed by an MSc in intelligent knowledge-based systems (essentially AI) from the University of Essex.

We met when I was 10 and Rob was 9, since our families both lived in Maine Close in Dover, but it was to be roughly another 20 years before we got together in 1997.

We married on 30 June, 2000, with Merissa, my daughter from my first marriage, as our chief bridesmaid. From that point on, Merissa was ‘our’ daughter, Rob taking her under his wing and treating her as his own. The love was mutual, with Merissa formally taking her new dad’s name and later marrying her husband Luke as a ‘Neil’.

Rob was particularly delighted when he became a granddad and we both looked forward to our monthly trips to Leeds, where Merissa and Luke now live, to see Alana and Zach, who will be seven at the end of July.

Rob loved eating out, particularly Indian food, and we especially enjoyed visiting Benares in Mayfair on our wedding anniversaries. He was also an accomplished cook and found preparing food a great way to de-stress. He loved music and reading, often having several books on the go at the same time.

As a colleague he was loyal and supportive and he will, I know, be sadly missed not just by his family and friends but by all those who worked alongside my amazing, much-loved husband Rob. Thank you to everyone who has made contact and done their bit to ease my pain by your kind words and, in some cases, deeds.

Donations in Rob’s memory, in due course, will be to Pilgrims Hospices in gratitude for their outstanding care.