I can remember walking around Chopwell, County Durham with my Dad one day as a teenager and him pointing out the places of his childhood. I should have asked more at the time because I was to lose him before I could ask everything.
My Dad was born on 11th Nov 1917 at Chopwell where he spent his early years. His world took an abrupt turn for the worse when at 9 months old his father was severely injured in a mining accident. He only remembered his Father on crutches and he was only just turned 8 years old when he died.
My Grandma was determined he was not going to become a miner like his father and worked hard to send him to a private school somewhere in the south of England for a while but I haven’t confirmed where yet. He moved with his Mother to Throckley near Newcastle when she became a Housekeeper at a house called Tyne View. He finished his education at a Grammar School in Newcastle, I believe. Leaving school at 16 he went into Furniture Sales in Newcastle, Hexham and finally York, although I think if he was honest he would have preferred to have worked with machinery. He was forever tinkering and repairing things. He was a very practical man.
He was an active member of the Throckley Chapel “15-35 club” playing Prince Charming in their pantomime one year! He was very musical, having a lovely voice, playing instruments by ear and was also a good dancer. He loved the Big Band sound, in particular Glen Miller and also singers such as Mario Lanza.
He’d suffered ill health at 18, so when he was called up on 15th Jan 1940 he joined the R.A.S.C. and was in 348 COY (Tipper). He was in various countries including North Africa and Italy and reached the rank of Corporal.
He married my Mum, Sadie Rutter, also from Throckley, on 2nd June 1948. My Dad had a great sense of humour and was always telling jokes. He was well known for his very infectious hearty laugh. I smile even now when I think of it.
He enjoyed football and played golf until we moved to York and the club fees were too expensive. He joined the Royal Observer Corp in York.
He inherited the family’s “red hair” and could have the short temper to go with it at times. All his adult life he had recurring health problems due to the ulcer he’d had in his teens, and I was devastated (being very much a Daddy’s girl) when, as a result of complications following another operation, he died on 29th September 1981. He was 63.

Lyn Wilson Sunday 7 October 2007