George Waft spent more than half a century in the public service of Onchan: two decades as a parish commissioner, nineteen more representing the district in Tynwald, and his final years leading its branch of the Royal British Legion. He died on October 1, 2026, at the age of 89.

Waft was born in 1937 and was educated at Tynwald Street and Desmesne Road Primary Schools before moving on to Ballakermeen and Douglas High School. He went on to the Isle of Man College of Further Education, the Naval Training College and the Isle of Man Nurse Training School, and later studied through the Open University, according to BBC News.

Before he entered politics, Waft worked as a catering officer with the Steam Packet Company and in the Merchant Navy, then retrained as a psychiatric nurse, a career he practiced for thirty years, Manx Radio reported.

His career in elected office began at home. Waft sat on the Onchan Board of Commissioners from 1971 to 1991, serving two terms as its chairman, the Onchan district authority said in announcing his death. That local record carried him to national politics in 1991, when he won the Onchan seat in the House of Keys. He represented the constituency until 1994, when he moved to the Legislative Council, Tynwald's upper branch, where he sat for sixteen years before retiring in 2010, concluding 39 years of continuous public service since his first election as a commissioner.

Rob Callister, the current MHK for Onchan, said Waft "served our community with dedication and commitment," adding that "many people across Onchan and the wider Isle of Man will be saddened by his passing." Juan Watterson, President of Tynwald, called him one of the parliament's "gentle souls," 3FM reported.

Waft joined the Royal British Legion in 1998 and, in his final years, became president of its Onchan branch, a post he held for the last five years of his life. In 2006 he turned to the parish's past, self-publishing "From Tynwald Street to Tynwald Hill," a 108-page illustrated history of the streets and hill he had spent his career representing.

The record Waft built in Onchan is cumulative rather than singular: committee minutes from two decades on the commissioners, Hansard pages from nineteen years in Tynwald, a branch of veterans he led in his final years, and a self-written history of the streets that shaped his career. Three institutions, one small corner of the island, and one man who moved between nearly all of them for most of his adult life.