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.
