All of you here knew dad and also knew that his wicked sense of humour was his trade mark – usually atsomeone else’s expense! I should imagine there is not one person here that has not been the butt of one of his jokes or constant teasing. 

Dad was born in Hackney 1944. His sister’s Barbara and Jennifer must have been driven mad by his practical jokes as they grew up. Dad always told us that he went to church three times a day on a Sunday and was a choirboy, although Jenny did recently tell me that was just because his mum wanted him out of the house. 

He loved sport and was always telling us tales of his cricket and football matches as well as showing off his badminton medals. Not sure school realised that he stole a cricket bat which was often used in the garden cricket matches we hadeach summer. 

Dad met mum in the 6th form at school, again practical jokes a plenty but apparently he made her laugh! Mum often claims that she would have been a brain surgeon except dad was always stopping her from studying. I’m not sure dad ever worked that hard at school as he made mum read his books and just give him a summary. However he certainly must have done rather well as after his A levels, he went on to Queen Mary College at London University to study for a degree inMechanical Engineering. Mum went off to train as a teacher (not a proper one, it was primary!!). 

They got married in 1967 and as you know as they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in the summer. 

For dad, as well as having two sisters, then followed three daughters – in fact all our pets were always female too! Well until Barney but the fact that he is a boy is often questioned!!

We had a lovely childhood with lots of family holidays in North Devon, in particular at Stowford Farm Meadows and later to the South of France. Often in our caravan which both mum and dad loved. I do have to admit that some of the car journeys were a little fraught. Mum’s map reading skills have a lot to be desired and us three bickering in the back brought quite a few “Jesus Christ’s” from dad and our favourite “Buggerations” – which the three angelic daughters in the back then made a song about – Reggie and the Buggerations. I’m not sure how we were brave enough to do this especially as his long arms used to come round and try and smack our legs as he was driving,  which made us laugh even more – silently of course! 

Dad worked for Ford for over 30 years and travelled all over the world, I think he enjoyed all the social aspects much more than the job. He and mum loved attending sports events and they enjoyed many trips sto Wimbledon, Grand Prix’s and even the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. Dad also loved any kind of DIY although this is a bit of an understatement because he actually doubled the size of our house as he built each separate phase of the extension single handedly – however it was the running joke that it took him 15 years. Dad could make, mend or fix absolutely anything – admittedly you would keep out of his way when he was doing so or looking for the spare part in his garage. He wouldn’t accept any help or suggestions as to how it might be done, woe betide anyone that thought they had a better idea! Trouble was, in the end he always made the best job but would remind you of the fact constantly. 

Dad then had the delight of enjoying (and paying rather a lot) for our three weddings but at least he wasn’t so outnumbered by women! And as you know that was all about to change, the pendulum swung the other way when the first 5 grandchildren all boys! He was delighted that all of the boys have followed in his love of sport, in fact Emily and Francesca also love sport too,  so he has a escaped many more dance and gymnastics shows. Dad took every opportunity he could to come along to football and cricket matches both home and away.  There was always a bit of a problem in that 1) he insisted on bringing Barney to every fixture, sulking if they wouldn’t allow dogs and 2) really being only interested in his own grandchildren. The number of times he packed up his chair and decided he needed to go home as soon either one of them were out in the cricket or were subbed for more than 5 minutes in the football. He wasn’t worried about hiding this fact at all and left the rest of us sinking further into our chairs.However, there is absolutely no doubt at all that even though his collective term for his grandchildren was “thicklets”, he was so proud of them all and took every opportunity to tell anyone and everyone how talented they were.

As I said, dad loved to travel and when Vic and her family relocated to Singapore it gave him the opportunity to extend their annual trip to see them and take in a few exciting places. Although mum wasn’t quite as adventurous as dad he managed to persuade her to visit Bali, Thailand, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Just eighteen months ago, they visited temples in Cambodia although he never succeeded on getting mum to do the midnight tour of Vietnam on the back of a Vesper that he was so keen on!

As most of you will know Dad loved his red wine and enjoyed nothing more than going out for meal with mum or with mum and friends to either the Red Lion or the George and Dragon. He was always the life and soul of the party, cracking jokes and pulling someone’s leg. He loved spending time down in Lympstone at their cottage and he and mum had so many lovely breaks down there with the dogs. They were regulars at The Swan and The Globe and often spent New Years Eve joining in with the village festivities. 

What many of you didn’t know that Dad had become really very poorly over the past year. He had had quite a few stays in hospital and was really finding things very difficult. He really didn’t like people knowing this and hated the fact that he couldn’t do the things he used to, in fact just last summer the day after he came from hospital, he was out trying to mow the lawn. It was only in the last few months that he had accepted that he couldn’t do much and found this really frustrating. 

All through this, he didn’t lose his sense of humour, still teasing and poking fun at the family and even our dogs, which were never in his opinion as handsome, intelligent and as well behaved as theirs. 

In fact Tom made us laugh when he was remembering the last conversation he had with dad – I might add he has inherited his terrible sarcastic sense of humour. Mum and Dad had looked after our dog Bramble whilst we visited George at University and Dad had just, after constant nagging, got himself a hearing aid.  Of course he didn’t want it or need it, it didn’t work and he could have designed and made a better one.  Just as we were about to leave, he started,

“Your bloody dog’s got my hearing aid!” to which Tom mouthed “What?”

“Your bloody dog’s got my hearing aid!” Again Tom mouthed he couldn’t hear him.

By this time shouting 

“Your bloody dog’s got my hearing aid” 

They both knew exactly what the other was doing and enjoyed healthy competition to be the funniest!!

I think our fondest memories that we all share of dad are:

His routine of a poached egg on toast, no crusts every morning before work and his whisky and American dry of an evening. 

His repetitive and annoying jokes, “you coming down the beach?” for several mornings after we returned from our summer holiday. 

But most of all apart from his incessant teasing and his practical jokes, he worshipped mum and had an on going passion and pride in his three daughters and all of his grandchildren. 

One final thing – like many families, our Christmas’ were spent playing games such as Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit and rarely ended amicably. Often finishing in a tie break. Dad would pick up the card to read the question for the Championship!

“The Titantic sunk in 1912, there were 500 survivors …….. Name them!”