UNCLE CEC

Cecil Stephen Clease

Cecil Stephen Clease – Some knew him as Cecil, to some he was Steve, to others he was Dad, Grandad, Great Grandad but to me he was Uncle Cec so that's how I will refer to him.

He was was born in 1923 in Warmley into what must have been a fairly crowded household, Grandad had married twice, some of the children from his first marriage were still at home & Uncle Cec was the 4^th eldest of his Dad's second family. In 1933 they moved just up the road to a slightly bigger house but they were joined by sisters Hazel & Margaret & their Aunt Nan so still just as crowded. Uncle Cec & my Dad had to share a bed in the small bedroom & lads being lads there was often a lot of messing about at bedtime, causing their Dad to come up to give them a larruping. Apparently as Uncle Cec slept closest to the wall it was my Dad who took most of the punishment, much to Uncle Cec's amusement.

As a lad he got up to various pranks, One story he used to tell Jen was of tying a long piece of thread to someone's door knocker, hiding behind a wall or hedge, pulling the thread to make the knocker sound & get someone to open the door to find no-one there. One year after digging over the garden, he placed a lot of half eggshells open side down on the soil and saying "Come and look, we've got a garden full of mushrooms.

Uncle Cec went to the village school, which was only a matter of yards from their front door & that was where he was educated until he began his apprenticeship as a Carpenter at Carsons Chocolate Factory when he was 16. Granddad Clease & my Dad both already worked there, so Uncle Cec was amongst friends & it seems it was a place full of characters. In later years Uncle Cec loved to have a natter to Dad about those characters & the larks they used to get up to. The factory was a large brick built building & on the roof were huge open water tanks used for cooling so the guys made boats to sail on these ponds , they hid the boats from the managers by sinking them under the water.

But he hadn't long started to learn his carpentry skills when the 2^nd W.W. started, first his brother Roger, then his sister Denny were called up & then in 1943 Uncle Cec too was required to join the forces. He joined the RAF where he was able to put his wood working skills to good use making & maintaining the wooden airframes of Mosquito aircraft. When he left the RAF in 1945 his demob papers described him as “An industrious, conscientious, hard-working capable tradesman. Efficient in all his work requiring little or no supervision"

Presumably he returned to Carson's to complete what should have been a 5 yr apprenticeship but we're not sure about that, although we do know that he was awarded a grant to enable him to buy a set of tools to help him find employment. He met & married local girl Betty Gingel, in 1950 cousin Jen was born & they lived at Mendip View, London Rd. Bridgeyate, just up the road from his family home at Northcroft. He worked for local builders Hemboroughs until a contract for him to make & supply wooden crates for another local company gave him the opportunity to go self employed & that was what he did for the rest of his working life, earning his living as a handyman & decorator, although his skills obviously went well beyond this, with another local tradesman Lionel Hudd, he built my Dad's garage & he built a house next door to Mendip view.

He was always a very keen gardener, growing all the basic vegetables and fruit. Jen hopes he didn't miss all the fresh young peas and juicy ripe gooseberries that she scrumped because they were so delicious. She tells me Uncle Cec would often quote a few lines by Dorothy Frances Gurney -

"The kiss of the sun for pardon

The song of the birds for mirth

One is nearer God's Heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on Earth."

He also took an interest in entering his produce in local shows and regularly won many first prizes.

Uncle Cec was very active in the church, he was to become Church Warden at St Barnabas, & took on the responsibility for it's maintenance. He told me how one time the vicar phoned him to say a gully on the church roof was blocked, so he got out his long ladders & clambered up, he managed to clear the blockage & the built up water started to flow, just like he had pulled a plug out of a sink, but unfortunately it cascaded down over the vicar who was stood on the bottom of the ladder. He was also a fund raiser, as were most of the family, at one time he made wooden plinths for houseplants which were sold to raise funds for the church, his niece Julia still has one which she has used for over 50yrs.

Although not really a sportsman Uncle Cec enjoyed cricket & played skittles at the Station Hotel in Warmley where he got me one of my first paid jobs as a sticker upper. I think he was quite a good skittler & had a very distinctive action going down on all fours as he bowled the ball down the alley.

In 1978 he met Jenny Jones when she became the organist at St Barnabas, they formed a strong friendship, got married in 1984 & lived the rest of their lives at Whittucks Rd. where together they built lovely homes & beautiful gardens, where they enjoyed their dogs Holly & Fred, where they have supported & been supported by many good friends & from where they were able to help his sisters Eileen & Hazel look after Margaret, & I know Uncle Cec was deeply affected by the loss of his sisters.

One thing some of you may not know about Uncle Cec & despite what Jenny might think Uncle Cec was also a musician, she has told me quite emphatically that he was not & recounted how he had tried to trick friends into thinking he could play the organ by pretending to press the keys when it was in automatic mode – but not only could he play he also taught others how to play – cousin Julia tells me that many years ago Uncle Cec taught his nephews Pat & John how to play the Joe Loss tune In The Mood one handed on their organ, & he must have been a good teacher because John can still remember how to play it. So it might only have been one tune & then only with one hand – but Uncle Cec could play the organ. And that makes him very musical compared to me.

He was an easy man to talk to, especially if you had an interest in gardening, he had a way of passing on hints & tips that have stayed with me for many years. He was always interested in what we were doing & always asked after the family in a way that you knew was genuine & not just out of politeness.

He was a courteous, mild, well mannered man , everyone who knew him said he was a real gentleman. 

Roger James Clease 29th Jan 1919 - 27th Oct 2013

Dad was a Warmley boy, he was born in 1919 in a cottage on Syston Common, just off Norman Rd. - he was never sure which one but it must have been quite crowded because as well as his parents and older sister Eileen there were also several siblings from his Dad's first marriage still at home. While he was still quite young the family moved nearly half way to Bridgeyate then a further 100yds to Northcroft – a house at the junction of Church avenue & London Rd.
In 1952 Mum & Dad bought no.18 Winfield Rd. where they raised us boys & where they lived for the rest of their lives – so Dad’s 94 yrs were spent mainly living in a very small area of Warmley & from the house in Winfield Rd he could see every house he had lived in (at least when the leaves were of the trees).
Dad went to Warmley C of E school which was only a matter of yards from the front door & then to Kingswood Grammar School, which was only a short walk away. As a youngster Dad spent much of his time out & about in the local field & lanes with brother Cec & friends including Merv Hemborough & Jack Bates. He took part in many scouting activities which he thoroughly enjoyed especially the camping trips but for some reason he never actually joined.
After leaving school Dad became an apprentice Maintenance Engineer at Carsons chocolate factory so even then he wasn't travelling very far from home.
The threat of war was now looming so Dad had to join the militia then when war was declared Dad was amongst the first to be conscripted. First in R.E. ,Training to build bridges & pontoons Dad later transferred to R.E.M.E. to train as a radar mechanic. He spent most of the war training or training others & was always very pleased to be able to say he never had to fire a shot in anger.
It was during the war, on a posting near Kidderminster that he met a young lady he was later to marry & spend the next 55 yrs with. Uncle Cec can remember Dad writing to tell him he had met a girl & says Uncle Cec it was obvious straight away that he was smitten. They managed to stay in touch throughout the rest of the war, when the hostilities were over Dad was asked to stay on & was offered the chance to go to Edinburgh university but instead chose to return home & go back to his previous job at Carsons & amazingly Mum upped sticks from Geordie land & moved 300 miles to be with him.
They married in 1948 & were living in a flat in Downend, when to their great joy, I arrived 1950. Shortly after this their landlady died & they moved back to Dad's family home at Northcroft. They were still living there when in 1952 brother Brian arrived in a bit of a rush – a trait which has stayed with him all his life. Shortly after they were granted a licence to buy their own house & chose 18 Winfield Rd. moving in just in time for Christmas. They had chosen well because that was where they lived happily for the rest of their lives. Brother Dave arrived in 1956 & their family was complete.
In 1961, now a foreman, Dad was still working for Carsons when they merged with packers & he had the choice of moving with them (all the way to Whitehall) or finding another job. Surprisingly Dad chose the later option, a move to Derby was discussed but they decided to stay put & Dad got a job with Fry's at Sommerdale where he stayed for the rest of his working life, retiring in 1983. He spent the next 20 yrs enjoying his retirement with Mum until she passed away in 2003. The last 10 yrs he looked after himself as much as he possibly could but gradually be became housebound & more reliant on external carers while still trying to be as independent as possible.
Fair enough, that's Dad's life but the snag is it doesn't tell you anything about the man.
Dad was an engineer by trade, but he was also a son, brother, husband, Dad, Father in Law, Granddad & Great Granddad
His sister Denny remembers that he was a good son who washed the floor every Saturday for his mum A good brother, it was Dad who gave her away when she got married as their dad was almost blind by then. His brother Cec recalls that they knocked about together a fair bit as lads, on one occasion lugging a dead fox home because they thought there may be some value in the tail. Typical of brothers there were occasional spats which sometimes escalated but they became work colleagues at Carsons & in later years enjoyed nothing more than a good natter about the characters they worked with & the pranks they got up to.
Mum & Dad were married for 55 yrs so I think we can surmise he was a good husband. They raised 3 sons who became solid, upstanding citizens (well solid at least).
Dad was always working, my earliest memories of him are his coming in from work just as the Archers was finishing & dancing me round the room in his arms to the theme tune, & that would have been about 7pm. & when he was at home he was never one to sit around, he always seemed to be in his blue boiler suit working on the house, the garden or the car. He had his own way of doing things, he readily accepted that it wasn't always the right way, but it was his way & the results always seemed right.
He was resilient which was a trait of his generation, they had to be – they survived the depression years, they survived the war, they overcame post war rationing but beyond that Dad survived loosing Mum & living on his own for 10 yrs + he survived & recovered from a bad fall & fractured scull when he was 92 with barely a word of complaint.
He was a courteous, mild, well mannered man with high moral standards, everyone who knew him said he was a real gentleman but he was not subservient, he always said a person had to win your respect before you called them sir.
He was not a joiner, which was perhaps why he didn't join the scouts. He said he only joined the army because they made him & when he got out he vowed to never join as much as a tea club - & he never did.
He was very patient & surprisingly tolerant with us. As kids our holidays every year were to Mums home at Tynemouth & to us boys that meant day after day on the beach, what ever the weather, endless games of beach cricket or football or rock-pooling all of which Dad was expected to join in – or hours spent on the fish-quay at NorthShields hand-lining in what was then a the very mucky river Tyne (& catching next to nothing except the occasional little crab).
Dad tried to help with our homework but I think I severely tested his patience on that.
As we grew up we continued to do our best to try his patience & tolerance, it was after all the 60's, perhaps a time of greater social change than any other & a very trying time to be the parent of 3 teenage boys.
He could also be very stubborn on some things, just ask the various therapists who tried to help him recover after his various visits to hospital over the years, he was having none of that nonsense
Dad was also very helpful, when we got our first cars it was quite usual for him to have spent all day in work & then have to spend his evenings & weekends helping us keep our cars on the road.
& when Grandchildren came along his services as an unpaid child-minder were very much in demand.
All these requests for help were met, not always without complaint, & sometimes with a bit of chivvying from Mum, but none the less done & done well.
Although he was so generous with his help he expected little in return & was always grateful just for a thank you. He loved it when, for example, his Grandchildren took the time to visit him & said on many occasions that he genuinely couldn't understand why they would want to bother with him.
We have a lot to be thankful for & I want to finish by thanking the people who helped look after our Dad in his last years, the carers from the various agencies & the DR's & nurses at Frenchay Hospital who made his last few weeks as comfortable as possible. Marilyn who kept his house spick & span and especially his daughters in law without who's help we would have struggled. And finally all the friends & family who have come along to help us say cheerio to Dad – we are very grateful.

Too Funny Not To Share

I keep getting sent amusing e-mails, unsolicited & usually unattributed & this one I thought was just too funny not to share, I hope you enjoy the as much as I did, they certainly made me chuckle & if you enjoy them let me know & I'll put some others on here.

How Fights Start My wife sat down on the settee next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, 'What's on TV?' I said, 'Dust.' And then the fight started... ****************************************** My wife and I were watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have sex?" "No," she answered. I then said, "Is that your final answer?" She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes." So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend." And then the fight started.... ****************************************** Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van, and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible." My loving wife of 5 years replied, "Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?" And that's how the fight started... ****************************************** I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah, well I couldn't believe it.... He was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, "I AM NOT HAPPY!!!" So, I looked down at him and said, "Well, then which one are you?" And then the fight started..... ***************************************** My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.' I bought her a bathroom scale. And then the fight started... ****************************************** When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her some place expensive... so, I took her to a petrol station. And then the fight started... ****************************************** After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later. The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application. When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too.' And then the fight started... ****************************************** My wife and I were sitting at a table at my school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, 'Do you know her?' 'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.' 'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?' And then the fight started... ****************************************** I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason took my order first. "I'll have the steak, medium rare, please." He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah," I said, "she can order for herself." And then the fight started... ****************************************** A woman was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to her husband, "I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.' The husband replied, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.' And then the fight started.....