Wally Lumm was a village churchwarden but was quite unliked in Beckindale as he was an outspoken man who held very controversial views on religion. He was against divorced women entering the Mothers Union At a party at the vicarage Annie Sugden gave him a piece of her mind. His wife dictated to Letty Brewer whether she could or could not go to the Mothers Union because Letty was planning to divorce her husband. Wally fell ill to pneumonia in late 1974 and sadly died on January 1975 offscreen. Sam Pearson was sad he had died even if he was quite opinionated when alive.