Those of you who attended Paul’s Funeral will no doubt remember me reading some fond memories I had of Paul. Later, as I was leaving Rose Bank to return home to Dorset, Alex asked me what other stories I could recall. So for those of you who never got to hear me speak, and for those of you who want to hear that extra story I told Alex, I have now added it into my original text.
 
Our mothers came from a large family in Hatfield and were the only two sisters amongst the many brothers.

My mother Phyillis and Paul’s mother Vera were naturally very close and would visit one another on a weekly basis. Being about 2 years younger than Paul I’d be allowed out in their garden to play, while Paul was by then attending school. To my great delight one day I discovered Paul had made a secret camp up a tree in their orchard. I spent many happy hours playing in it and examining all of the secret things he’d hidden away – a catapult, magnifying glass, jars and tins, and all sorts of other odds and ends that were treasures to a young boy. I don’t think he ever realised I’d discovered all this.

Some years later I remember there being an old stripped down motorbike in their garden that Paul was painstakingly putting back together. He was obviously a gifted engineer, even at the age of 14.

But rewinding the clock slightly, Paul and I spent a very happy week together during the school holidays at a farm run by another cousin and her husband Charlie, who was a good old country boy and a farmer through and through.

I think I must have been 9 and Paul 11. Charlie was glad to have us around that week as it was harvesting time, so a bit of free labour would come in handy on the farm. Paul, being the senior of us two, was entrusted to be in charge of the grease gun and lubricate the various parts of the big red Massey Harris Combined Harvester, following Charlie’s guidance (I’ll upload a slightly grainy photograph I took on my Kodak Brownie 127 at the time). During our stay at the farm Charlie had taught us both how to drive his Ferguson Tractor – Oh what fun we had!

Paul gained the reputation of a master builder and decorator. My wife Glynis and I came to rely on Paul for much of our building, painting and decorating work. He came to the rescue when we had a devastating flood, organising all the repair work in no time and leaving everything ship shape. He was a superb craftsman and was capable of fixing anything.

Many years later Paul got into partnership with an old school chum of mine. They ran a beat up old Ford Transit that had on the side Hedges & Whittingham – builders and decorators. 

My wife Glynis and I wanted to join our dining room up with the living room, so needed an arch opening in the adjoining wall. Enter Hedges & Whittingham, with their mate ‘Big Mick’. Paul had asked me to draw the shape of the arch we required with a felt pen on the wall as guidance for them to follow. Paul then asked politely for Glynis and I to go out for a few hours, as there would be a lot of dust. Glynis looked alarmed at seeing Big Mick with his huge sledgehammer. “What’s he going to do?” asked Glynis. “Knock the wall down” replied Paul, looking somewhat surprised – I think I detected a slight grin on his face! For some reason Glynis had thought that my felt pen line was guidance for some magical laser device that would slice effortlessly though the wall and they’d remove it like a slice of cake. She hadn’t reckoned on Big Mick!

An amusing post script to that story is after Paul’s partnership broke up he decided to sell the old Ford Transit as it had done a huge mileage by then. But before doing so he thought he’d wind the speedo back a few thousand miles with his electric drill attached to the speedo drive. He opened up the bonnet and removed the outer casing at the rear of the speedo, only to find a hand written piece of paper saying “Oh no. Not again!”

I realised how much Paul had impacted on the lives of people around him when I chatted to a young man at a family barbeque. He couldn’t praise Paul enough for his mentoring and guidance during the start of his career.

I feel blessed at having known Paul all my life. I will miss him so much. He was such a kind caring person. We had a lot of laughs together, as our wives will testify, when they heard us on the phone to each other, we would giggle like schoolboys with jokes and funny quips.

He was just the perfect friend and cousin.

David