11:23am Thursday 17th April 2008
By Lewis Cowen
PEWSEY landlord and district councillor Jerry Kunkler has married his Thai bride after a holiday romance that began last summer.
Mr Kunkler, proprietor of the Moonrakers Inn in the High Street, married 31-year-old Kinnalak Falawong in a civil ceremony at Devizes Register Office on Saturday.
Mr Kunkler said Miss Falawong was getting used to the British weather.
He said: "We met in Thailand last year and we got on well from the start. I have been out a few times since to see her and she came over here in December.
"She noticed how cold it was straight away, of course, but she is getting used to it and she loves Wiltshire."
After the ceremony, there was a reception at the Moonrakers where Mr and Mrs Kunkler welcomed friends from the local community and beyond.
Mr Kunkler, 50, lives with his mother Dulcie, over the pub.
His father, Geoff, died a few years ago.
Mr Kunkler was born and raised in the village and educated locally.
He has been a licensee for more than 25 years, and is one of the longest serving in Kennet.
He served on Pewsey Parish Council for many years and has been representing the village on Kennet District Council since 1995.
He was chairman of the Pewsey Vale Football Club and of Pewsey Sports Centre.
When local girl Shelley Rudman competed in the last winter Olympics he organised fundraising efforts in the village to support her training.
And the celebrations when she won the silver medal in the women's skeleton bob were based at the pub. It became a hub during the parade when an open topped bus toured the village.
There was general delight in the village at the news of Mr Kunkler's wedding.
Mr Kunkler's former colleague on Pewsey parish council, Marilyn Day, said: "He deserves the congratulations of everyone. He has done so much for the village and is a friend to all the young people in the area. He is a bit of an agony uncle. If people have a problem he will give them a sympathetic ear."
Kennet district councillor, Coun Chris Humphries, who was at the wedding, said: "I only met the bride briefly at the ceremony but she struck me as a lovely girl.
"I wish them everything they wish themselves."
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