Read by Kevin ...
When we were thinking of a eulogy we started to wish we had listened more closely to Dad’s stories and what he was doing when and where. But then we realised that you were all with him …. growing up, working, partying, playing golf, listening to jazz, walking the dog – all the things he loved to do – so much of the detail of Dad’s life and times are contained within your own memories. We are sure that many of them are fond ones.

In Dad’s bedside drawer we found his grandfather’s pocket watch, a photo of his father’s squadron and his medals, a photo of mum taken before they were married, a letter about his good friend Ian and some cards that we had made him as children for birthdays and father’s day. That really summed Dad up. He loved his family and we think he would say that probably most of his happiest times were spent with family, both the times he spent having fun with his brothers, lighting fires inside the
dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park, helping out at the hotels in Bexhill and later Steyning, travelling the country on his moped and, more latterly, with his own family, children and grandchildren.

Dad was fiercely proud of his father who sadly died in the Second World War when Dad was only 3 years old. He made sure he attended the unveiling ceremony of the Bomber Command memorial and was planning a trip to his father’s grave in Denmark, which hopefully we will now do in his place. He was also immensely proud of his mother’s achievements both in running her own business and as an accomplished artist.

We know that some of you will remember parties at Dad’s family house Fairlawn in Sydenham when Dad was involved in the National Youth Theatre and we have found some of the photos he took at the time. He was passionate about photography, turning a bedroom in our first family home into a dark room so that he could develop his own photographs and continuing this hobby until a few months before he died.

Dad met his wife Pat when he went to work as an apprentice at Tinsley’s, a factory in South Norwood. They were completely different people, but the 50 years they spent together is a reflection of the strength of their relationship and love for one another.
Dad soon moved on from Tinsley’s and after a variety of jobs – even door to door encyclopedia sales – he got a job with Caribonum where, as many of you know, he spent the rest of his career moving from sales rep to a director of the company. Dad made many friends at Caribonum and although he worked hard and would often be in Mum’s bad books for getting home late, he would recount stories about long boozy lunches and the good times that they had at the CARMA dinners. His particularly good friend, Ian sadly died while they were both still quite young and we remember visiting Eleanor, and their daughters very well. Eleanor is kindly here today.

Dad somehow found the time to run his own business, Datascope which later became Buy-Choice, a small business he ran after taking early retirement from Caribonum, which had by then become Pelikan, until he was about 70 years old.

Dad loved the outdoors, we had long walks together at the weekend in Shirley Hills, were taken badger watching and all remember visiting bird sanctuaries as children
and being made members of the RSPB. He even set up a hide in the garden one year so that he could photograph birds more closely, although we did wonder whether it was actually just an escape from his wife and three daughters!

We also had great fun on our annual family canal boat holidays which everyone, even the cats, went on. These continued occasionally even when we were all grown up and in later years Mum and Dad bravely took some of the grandchildren away for a week on the canals. In many of the photos we have found of Dad over the years there is always a black lab somewhere in the background and his daily walks with the dogs were an important part of his life. From when we were very young he always chose to live in a house backing onto woodland so that he could easily walk his dogs – Gypsy, Megan, Bryher and now Pip.

We are immensely grateful to Sandra who, once Dad’s COPD made walking too difficult, came every day during the week and whenever we were on holiday to walk Pip and make sure Dad was OK. It was a huge relief for us to know that Dad was seeing Sandra every day and that Pip was having a run in Croham Hurst.

Golf was always a big part of his life and continued to be even after his broken arm, following a fall, meant that he could no longer play. He still went to Hever to drive the buggy for Ted, his golf partner and have lunch afterwards. When he was still playing golf he took the grandchildren to play in the summer holidays and inspired Ben to take up golf and join a club too.

Jazz was also something he was passionate about and he would drive Mum mad loudly playing, what we thought of, as his obscure jazz collection, until she made him get some earphones. He enjoyed music by George Lewis and Big Bill Brunsy, to name but a few, and put together some collections on CD with his friend Norman. We know he looked forward to Jazz Club once a month with Norman and his wife Margaret who he knew from the National Youth Theatre days and parties at Sydenham.

Mum and Dad played a huge part in the lives of their grandchildren, looking after Luke, Chloe and Ben from the time they were babies and then after school and during the holidays. They visited Amanda, Maisie and Jamie for holidays and Dad continued to holiday with them in Spain after he lost Mum.

Once the grandchildren had grown up we continued to be very close to Mum and Dad, seeing them at least once a week, and once Dad was living by himself and not so well
would all call him during the week and visit at weekends. Losing Dad will create a huge hole in our lives. We will miss the way he listened and the advice he gave us, we will miss just sitting and having a drink with him in the garden on a sunny afternoon, we will miss the quiet way he showed his love and affection for all of us.

I personally will be raising a toast to Eric when I have a whisky later on today, which is something we both shared an interest in – going to whisky tasting events and sharing a small glass whenever we got together, the last time just a day before he passed
away. I wasn’t surprised to learn that he had even persuaded Karen and Sue to smuggle him in a small nip when he was waiting to be discharged from hospital!

In memory of Eric his family have put together a short piece of music and some photos which we hope may bring back some fond memories …..