Eulogy read at funeral;
Oh cobblers!! Dad’s favourite word! He never stopped using it.
Our Dad, John was born on 27th May 1950 at St Andrews Hospital, Poplar. He was joined a few years later by his brother our Uncle Derek. They lived with their parents Catherine and Patrick, their Nan and Grandad and Catherine’s sister Evelyn, known as Auntie Bill in Brunswick Rd, E14 until John was around 13 yrs old.
John went to Manorfield school and met many of his best friends Jeff, Len and Alan.
Jeff recalls a time in 1960 when Mr Gordon, one of the teachers invited John and Jeff to accompany him to a mid-week evening reserve team match between Leyton Orient and Charlton at Brisbane Road. Mr Gordon was refereeing the match and they had seats in the stand and tea and biscuits with the match officials at half-time in their changing room. They thought we were the bee’s knees at the time. It was their first match attendance and the forerunner of many more to come.
I actually now have Dad’s ‘little black book’ which isn’t an ordinary little black book but contains every football match he ever went to documenting all the games he went to with Derek, his children and grandchildren. Come and find me later to see it but I can tell you that game Jeff refers to finished 4-0!
John and Derek first started to go to West Ham in 1962 and later started to follow them away travelling on Lacyies coaches agreeing to try to go to all the league ground's managing 69. John passed this down to his children and have many happy memories of attending games including the last at Upton Park and first at London Stadium.
Whilst at school John also collected bus number's and he still could remember which bus garage the bus came from by its number.
John had a paper round and never missed a day or night and was paid £1 35p per week. He often commented how he’s never been as rich since.
John went to George Green school where he met Richard and Earnie. At this school he went on a trip to Austria which got his travel bug going.
John and family then moved to Bradley House Bow E3 and saw the Bow fly over being built in front of his bedroom window and used to play football indoors with Derek between their beds listening to Bob Dylan LPs. Derek recalls when John was 16/17 he was a bit of a mod and had the small faces trousers (loud check) and bought a white pair of winkle picker shoes which caused great amusement in the family so John dyed them dark blue but when it rained the dye run turning his socks blue and the shoes blue and white stripes.
John often spoke of his family holidays at Jaywick Sands which he loved. His Mum and Dad would take them out every night on holiday and Derek recalls they planned to live there when they grew up, John wanting to be a Suttons coach driver (the coach company which took us to Clacton).
Whilst at Bow with John about to leave school one of his teachers got him a interview at the Swiss Bank and Auntie Bill took him for the interview. He went on to work there for around 25 years.
Aunt Joan played matchmaker at this time and arranged a meet with Christine, and subsequently marriage followed along with setting up home on Canvey Island and children Emma, Hannah and Adam were born.
Memories of his children growing up focus mainly around having two bars in the house. He built a nice bar in the living room, and one in the garden, the “outback bar” followed. John was, when he wasn’t moaning, really quite sociable. Every Friday friends and neighbours would visit, the house was always filled with music, laughter and cigar smoke, it’s a smell that brings a lot of fondness and reassurance. This was a constant theme throughout our lives. I recall being early twenties rolling home at 2am from a local nightclub, not wanting the night to end and inviting friends back to the “outback bar” in the garden to carry on the night. The house in darkness, I turn the bar lights on, beers poured when John’s bedroom light comes on. I feared the end of the night when John comes out, having just been awoken. He straight away lights up a cigar, pours himself a beer and becomes barman. We were out til around 5am when the sun was coming up. Great night.
As mentioned John loved travel and holidays. We were spoilt with many amazing foreign holidays. John saw this as great progress from Jaywick and again would document every flight travelled on and details just like his football book.
Emma’s memories are mainly about her Dad’s hospitality to her friends. Most nights she had her friends round in the garage where we had a pool table and the bar was always open despite us being underage- no one ever went thirsty at Clifton road!
John used to also play taxi to Emma and her friends to (and from) various nights out.
“I’ll never forget the first time I got drunk and being really sick and dreading what Dad would say. After getting an ear-bashing from mum I assumed I’d get the same from Dad- instead dad was very sympathetic and said “don’t worry, we’ve all been there!” And with memories of Dad being sick in the bidet on holiday we know Dad had!”
Hannah’s memories of John mostly revolve 3 things: food, telly and taping. He would often stay up late on a Saturday night, mostly to ensure she was home safely but also so he got a kebab as well: he wasn’t gonna miss out on a doner!
It was common knowledge that John was a bit of a telly addict; if it was on the box he probably watched it! With the telly watching came the military operation of making sure everything was recorded when he went on his holidays. The night before a holiday he would take himself up to his room and plan what programmes would be recorded on all five VCRs. Yes, five! Hannah used to get so stressed about missing a programme (no sky plus in those days) that she demanded payment in the fee of duty free perfume. A good deal she thought and had a perfume collection to rival Debenhams! Hannah remember vividly saying to dad then when he retired he could watch the Jeremy Kyle show, a guilty pleasure for many people. He firmly stated that “there would be no time for Jeremy Kyle, I’ll have things to do.” Well, not only did he watch the show but he also recorded it when he wasn’t going to be in! He would have been gutted to learn that it was axed the other week.
Jamie was John’s first grandchild and having looked after him from 6 months they had a strong bond and a number of ‘in jokes’.
Jamie and John were regulars at the Miley pub so much so that they recognised Jamie when Dan took him in one day commenting “hello Jamie- you’ve brought someone new with you today”!
Jamie used to torture John with numerous games of tennis, hockey and football where they weren’t allowed to stop until Jamie won! John used to be knackered by time Emma got home from work!
“The funniest story was when I got home from work and Jamie announced that “the bus driver shouted at grandad today!” When I asked Jamie why he simply said “the bus driver shouted at grandad because he pooed on the bus!” Upon questioning Dad he explained that the bus driver was moaning at Him as the buggy was in the way so dad told him to shut up and drive the bus. John then said to Jamie “did you see that Jamie- Grandad just poo-pooed the bus driver!”
John was also Grandad to Alfie, Eden and Bonnie in his retirement. He loved them all commenting how they were handsome and beautiful babies. Now he will loving looking after Alfie.
John was kind, generous, loyal and extremely fair. If he gave one chlld/grandchild a present he would then buy everyone else one. He would never forget gifts and generosity and always repay it. A good friend to have and a fantastic Dad. He always said he wanted I’ve got a brand new combine harvester at his funeral as he really liked the song so that’s next and also not to make his statue too high! Up the hammers!
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