Orphan Jim grew up to be the ultimate family man
As A volunteer at the Royal Horticultural society’s garden in Wisley, surrey, my father, Jim, was once approached by a lady who wanted some advice.
‘ When is the best time to take cuttings?’ she asked. Dad replied with the cheeky smile familiar to all who knew him: ‘When no one’s looking.’
Gardening was in Dad’s blood. His parents were both in domestic service at Ricketts Wood, a country house near Horley, in surrey, his mum Winnie looking after their employer’s children while his dad James was the gardener.
sadly, they both fell ill and died during the war. This left Dad and his younger brother stanley, then 13 and 11, in the care of an uncle and aunt in Horley.
These relatives were kind, but never loving. On the day he and stanley arrived, his aunt had to go out to work. sending them into the street and locking the front door behind her, she told them to amuse themselves until she got home.
On leaving grammar school, he wanted to study horticulture, but couldn’t afford the college fees, so instead he went into a bank. He was called up for National service in 1947, spending two years in the Royal Artillery and rising to sergeant.
After he was demobbed, he joined the Crusader Insurance Company, becoming an underwriter specialising in medical expenses, and working for them for 41 years. But, because perhaps of the love missing in his own upbringing, family was always the most important thing in his life.
He married my mother Monica, a nurse, in 1953 and they set up home in Redhill. I was born the following year and my sister Margaret in 1957.
Nothing was too much trouble for him and he loved spending time with his two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
He died peacefully in hospital, a kind, caring man much loved and missed by the family and friends, who often referred to him as ‘Gentleman Jim’.