Extraordinary LIVES
PETER grew up in Welling, Kent, and at the age of 15 became a photo-engraving artist apprentice at Odhams Press. We met in the late 1950s at a holiday camp. Our homes were more than 20 miles apart so we could only meet at the weekends before we married in 1961 at a lovely village church in Hartlip, Kent. After our two boys, Brian and Peter, were born three years apart, Peter needed to earn a family income, so he became a photo-engraving artist on the London Evening Standard newspaper. He was a gifted painter and his many works include a treasured portrait of me. In the 1970s, Peter took flying lessons and got his private pilot licence. He flew the family all over the country, including the Isle of Wight, where we spent weekends at a holiday camp. We would take off from Biggin Hill and, with the boys watching from the ground, I enjoyed aerobatics with Peter at the controls. In the 1980s, we bought a smallholding near Sittingbourne where we bred pure Charolais cattle. Unfortunately, due to BSE, the price of cattle plummeted
and we had to sell up. We bought a 44 ft Nauticat two-masted schooner. The previous owner had intended to sail it from Greece to Hoo Marina on the River Medway, where it would be handed over to Peter. During the voyage, there was a storm that did some damage to the boat. The crew decided they’d had enough and left the boat when it docked at Southampton. Peter had to drop everything to help sail the boat around the coast to Hoo, which was a good hands-on introduction to sailing it. We lived on the schooner for five years with our two cats, mooring at Hoo and Gillingham Marinas and on Thunderbolt Pier in Chatham’s historic dockyard. We would sail up and down the Medway, which was good exercise as with full rig there were five sails to adjust. After our adventures, we bought a house in Welling. In 2005, Peter was diagnosed with colon cancer. After he recovered, he painted portraits of himself, his sons and daughter-in-law, which are displayed on our living room wall. In his 70s, Peter started Karaoke, singing in the style of Elvis Presley and I couldn’t resist joining him on stage. He was such a colourful character and made so many friends over the years. I have wonderful memories and, of course, his beautiful paintings. n PeTeR JOHN JACKeTT, born October 30, 1939; died December 13, 2020, aged 81.