RUPERT HENRY VICTOR HEWITSON (24 Jan 1929 - 21 Apr 2016)

In loving memory of RUPERT HENRY VICTOR HEWITSON who sadly passed away on 21st April 2016

Rupert Henry Victor, or Bob as he was better known, was a loving husband to Jean his wife of over sixty years, a kind Father to Jacqueline and Robert, and a doting Grandfather to both Nicholas and Anthony.
Bob was born on the 24th January 1929 in Tooting, London and left school at the age of fourteen just after the outbreak of war.
He, and his Mum, and her partner Bob moved into the Holt Lodge, Morden in 1945 after it had been altered and made habitable.
At this time he worked for the Co-operative Society in their Tooting shop where he stayed for about four years before being called up for the Army to do two years national service in the medical corps. After the Army he returned to work for the Co-Op but could not settle back in his old job so he took a job on the Trams and Trolley busses working out of the Jews Road depot, Wandsworth.
The trams were removed from service in 1952 so he then went over to the Route Master Buses and stayed on them for about three years altogether.
He meet Jean his wife around this time, and they got engaged and married in 1953 with Arthur as his Best Man and Gwen as Jean's Bridesmaid.
When Jean and Bob first got married they were to move into a house that Bob's Mum had bought in Fountain Road, Tooting. They had already decorated the House with Jean's fathers help by then, but they did not know his Mum had sold the house to his sister Pam, who in turn, before they could move in, sold it off as she was emigrating to South Africa.
So as they were let down by his sister, they ended up living with his Mother at Holt Lodge, Morden in two upstairs rooms for a while before they eventually managed to buy a house in Bickersteth Road, Tooting and move away, stopping Jean from going mad.
Soon after, he left the London Transport for another job at Chapman's envelopes factory at Balham mainly so he could have weekends off having had to worked all hours of the day on the buses with London Transport.

He left Chapman's in about 1964 after fifteen years and started work for Wandsworth Council as a Welfare Ambulance Driver for disabled people, this was mainly to get more money as by now Jean and Bob had two children Jacqueline and Robert.
Bob and Jean, together with their lifelong friends Gwen and Bob would go on holidays together giving their children Jackie Rob, Keith and Mike, their first taste of foreign travel. On one such holiday to Italy Bob spent quite some time arguing with a shop keeper over the size of the bill as it had run into thousands of lira, not realising that at that time about 15,500 lira was equal to a little over seven pounds.
Bob was also responsible for capturing some priceless family moment using old Cine film and later on video which we can now look back on with fond memories for many years to come.
One of Bob's proudest moments was being "Father of the Bride" and giving away his daughter's hand in marriage to Clive in 1983. (although he could never quite understand why she wanted to use her Mother's old second hand wedding dress rather than a new one)
In 1984 he took early retirement from the Council then took a part time job as Caretaker to the Club Constellation Youth Centre, North Cheam for five Years until it was pulled down to make way for a new Sainsbury's Store.
During this time Bob provided daily transport for Jean and some of her workmates to and from Surbiton everyday in his beloved Skoda until Jean was finally able to retire herself and together they have had a long and happy retirement.
Bob loved his old movies, especially black and white cowboy films and to listen to the great tenors sing their songs. He would also love to deck the house with Christmas decorations from as early in December as possible and in as many rooms as Jean would allow.
Christmas would also be the time you would find Bob washing up at family gatherings round Ann and Brian's with his party hat still on his head as he would always be the last one to take it off.

He could put his hand to most D.I.Y jobs except perhaps wallpaper hanging and was only allowed to cut and paste, never to hang, wallpaper was expensive in those days so as Jean was more patient at those sort of things, that was her job.
Bob was not one to waste anything useful, he has been known to bring things back from skips as they might come in handy. He even kept his demob suit to this day as he always said "I can still get into it ", and even now he's wearing his sixty three year old grey Wedding Suit.
Babysitting duties with the grandchildren would include taking Nicholas and Anthony to Chessington World of Adventure and Bob would love to go on the scary rides using the grandchildren as an excuse to go on again and again.

We Miss You

We know how much we miss you
We feel an emptiness inside
It shows in everything we do
It's something we can't hide
We simply miss you being there
Life seems dull and flat
Without you nothing's quite the same
We can't say more than that
But one day we will meet again
We know that this is true
But every day until then
We'll just be missing you.

Dad would always say things like " One Day My Ship Will Come In "
or " If It's Meant To Be "
Mind you, he would quite often say " I Think My Hearing aid battery's gone again" We never did manage to convert him to new digital hearing aids.
Some weeks ago now I wanted to tell Dad just how thankful I was for everything he has done for me over the years.
But, being a typical British male, there was no way I could do this to his face, so I decided to write him a short thank you note instead
Unfortunately, Dad's eyesight had deteriorated and he was unable to read even the largest text
So I came up with the idea of recording the letter onto a tablet, then playing it through headphones
Again this didn't work as the headphones didn't seem compatible with his hearing aids
Finally I managed to link up the tablet with his television loop system and I was able to play him a selection of songs he'd liked over the years, plus I slipped in the recording of the thank you letter two or three times.
I like to think he understood and could make out the sentiment of the thank you note.

The thank you note:-

Just a short note of thanks for everything you have done for me
From the ball baring wooden scooters to the pram-wheeled go-karts
Pie and Mash
Holidays in the Sun
Old Cine films Memories
Christmas Time
Cementing, Plumbing, Lumber Jacking and Roofing,
The workings of the Hillman Imp and the joy of a Pound Shop
Thanks also for giving me the confidence to take on most DIY jobs, or at least try to tackle them, some of which I'm even better at than you now, however, you always seem to know a little bit of knowledge about everything.
Finally for giving me a loving happy home and a family.
The list goes on and on.
You can have no regrets for everything you have achieved with your life, so I think, for you, your ship did come in.
I hope you are as proud of me as I am of you.

Your Son,

Robert.