Tributes are paid to globetrotter, 102
TRIBUTES have been paid to an “amazing” community spokesman and former chef who has died at the grand age of 102.
Edward Thompson, who worked until he was 80 before penning his memoirs, died at Lotus Care Ash Cottage residential home in Edenfield on Sunday, April 30, three days after suffering a stroke.
The great-grandfather, who had previously lived in Rawtenstall and at Irwell House in Waterfoot, was a former president of Rawtenstall Pensioners’ Association. He was said to have been instrumental in saving St Mary’s Chambers by encouraging construction company B and E Boys Ltd to take ownership.
His daughter Joyce Glover, who has lived in Waterfoot for more than 40 years, said he was a ‘wonderful father’ who ‘lived life to the full’.
She said: “Dad worked into what many people would consider to be really old age. He had a fantastic constitution.
“He had quite an impact for the work he did with the pensioners’ association and the St Mary’s building, which was quite dilapidated, and he was very involved with Longholme Methodist Church.
“He was known as ‘Mr Toasty’ because he did the toast at every coffee morning until he was 90.
“Dad was very well read. He didn’t have much of an education when he was young but he was a self-taught man, very articulate. He had a huge book collection and loved to have discussions with people.”
Born in Goole in Yorkshire, Edward began work as a cargo ship steward aged 15 and visited places as far afield as Shanghai and the Amazon.
During the Second World War he was recruited into the Merchant Navy and was part of a crew responsible for shooting down a German enemy plane. Back on the mainland, Edward had a number of catering jobs including at a Cambridge University post-graduate house, and cooking for High Court judges.
He moved to Haslingden Road when he was 65 and worked parttime as breakfast chef at the Royal Hotel in Waterfoot until he was 80, when he wrote his memoirs, published as ‘My reminiscences – Thomas Edward Thompson’. He had been married to his late wife Mary, who he met in his teens, for 62 years.
Joyce, 70, added: “We are very sad but we have had so many wonderful comments from people saying it was a privilege and an honour to know him. He really was an amazing character and he touched many lives. It’s been wonderful to have these extra years with him.”
Edward leaves his children Joyce and David, son George and daughter-inlaw Eunice.
His funeral will take place on Wednesday, May 10 at Longholme Methodist Church at 12.15pm.
See obituary on p14.