John Tucker (18 Sep 1949 - 16 Feb 2025)

Dear Glenys, Simon and family.

We were so sorry to hear about John's passing. We will treasure fond memories of Christmases, quizzes and trips to Swindon town and Welsh mines. We'll be thinking of you all today, sorry we can't be there. All our love and best wishes, Jonny, Jenny, Ellie and Hannah.

We met John and Glenys about a year before Megan and Simon got married, John was always such a welcoming and entertaining man and we were so pleased that Megan had such a lovely father in law, then later a gorgeous grandad for Alicia and Ethan- we will all miss his presence , he made all of our family so welcome.

Although we both worked at CRE for many years, I only really got to know John when we worked on a project in China in the late 1990's. We made several fascinating trips to China, one of the most enjoyable being my final one; John and I were the only team members on this. We spent several days in Beijing, writing our project reports in the hotel during the day and enjoying a few drinks and a meal in the evening.
John was an excellent companion and a knowledgeable and helpful work colleague, always ready with a smile and a wry comment, a great guy, gone too soon. My condolences to his family and friends.

Mark & I have enjoyed many happy evenings with John & Glenys in Shepley since we became neighbours & friends. Our last evening out together coincided with Valentine’s night last year, where we were unexpectedly entertained / serenaded by a talented violinist, bringing smiles to all our faces.

John shared some fascinating stories from his work travels, and I loved hearing about the amazing places he & Glenys had visited.

At Christmas, John & Glenys warmly welcomed my parents into their home, making the evening thoughtful & memorable.

In the summer, we frequently saw John tending to their beautiful garden and enjoying walks with his grandchildren.

John was a true gentleman, courteous, thoughtful and a joy to know.

I'd planned to contact John in July to recall the 50th anniversary of our golfing holiday in Scotland. I'll still recall it, but I'll do it alone, sadly.
If you look at a map, on the "corner" above Aberdeen, a couple of miles east of Fraserburgh, you'll find a wee place called Inverallochy and its golf course. That was to be our first round that Sunday. The course actually proved quite elusive, no Google maps in those days. Eventually we found it, and by the gate, there was the notice "Please pay green fees at McTavish's garage, so we had another job finding that. The attendant at the garage explained that he was new there, but eventually he found the scorecards and we paid our fees before returning to the course. As was often the case, I sliced my drive and John hooked his, so we went our separate ways to search for our golf balls in the rough, about 80 yards apart.

While searching, I noticed two distant figures approaching along my side of the fairway. I was still searching when the two men eventually got to me, one of them resembling the humourless Dr Snoddy who was in Dr Finlay's Casebook. He leaned on his walking stick and said "Ye can no play here on the Sabbath". I replied, "We paid our green fees at McTavish's garage". He went on "I'm the secretary here and I'm saying that ye can no play here on the Sabbath."

I found my golf ball but John never found his! We returned to McTavish's for a refund.

John became our new neighbour in Offenham ( with Glenys) over 30 years ago. We got to know one another over the course of time and a friendship began with the both of them .
This friendship grew and grew and we would go out together for meals , he introduced us to the Blue Lagoon Indian restaurant in Evesham, and we subsequently spent many evenings sharing takeaways as well as eating out at said restaurant.

Our other fond memories are of the quizzes we attended at Offenham First school.John’s sporting prowess shone at these as well as his geographical knowledge.

Many , many, other moments were shared and even when we moved and they did to opposite ends of the country we remained very close despite the distance.

John was kind, considerate and respectful, welcoming ( to us and our family ) a really true ‘best’
friend .


We will miss him sorely

I have very fond memories of a sound and highly talented engineer. He made a real contribution to improving smokeless fuels. He lead from the front and was respected by his staff. Equally important I always enjoyed his stories of Polling day and the parish council, as told over a beer in Russia. Great tales. Mark Crowther