Obituary for Jack




These were my thoughts on Tuesday, 6th October, 2015
Jack died last night in a room overlooking the sea. Gilly was there and had told him that she loved him. Tina and I are so sad but we rejoice in that he was our friend and that he made such a wonderful life.


He came from hardship, the Black Country, where money was scarce but the love of family and country abundant. He joined the Royal Navy as a boy and went on to serve Queen and Country in destroyers, aircraft-carriers, and submarines. He married his childhood sweetheart Gilly, they raised children, loved and helped each other, and were together in marriage always. When he left the Royal Navy he served at Hinkley Point Atomic Power Station until retirement. But he continued to serve Queen and Country even more, with the help of Gilly, in the Royal Naval Association and so became its leading Officer in the West Country.

Over the years he has helped countless young lads and lasses find purpose, dignity, possibly in the services, certainly honouring our Naval tradition. Some of these lads and lasses were able to sail with him on  tall ships. Trafalgar night will never be the same without Jack and Gilly as admirals will attest. He was a sportsman, had played soccer, boxed for the Navy, and was a scratch golfer. Jack and Tina had that kind of relationship you find in brother & sister it was nice. Gilly is another woman who can tell me off! I will miss our chats about the sea and far away places. I will miss a good friend and quintessential Englishman.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AN ISLAND NATION

Image
AN ISLAND NATION Island Nation or EU satellite state? Last night Jeremy Paxman, on the 19th May 2016, presented an objective view of the European Union. It is clear that the EU intends becoming a federal state and that the United Kingdom would become subsumed into that bureaucratic nightmare. I give you an alternative - the open sea  and the Commonwealth. We are an island nation off Europe but not part of Europe.The Commonwealth needs us and we most certainly need them - they are the World. It is not a pipe dream, the building blocks are still there - just - and it is predicated on the following :- “The Charter brings together the values and aspirations which unite the Commonwealth - democracy, human rights and the rule of law - in a single, accessible document. The Charter expresses the commitment of member states to the development of free and democratic societies and the promotion of peace and prosperity to improve the lives of all peoples of the Commonwealth. The Cha
Read more

Where You Stand and Prejudice (2016)

Where you stand and prejudice. I  have written before on the Newfoundland aphorism of “where you stand depends where you sit.” With that saying in mind here are some of my thoughts on that most contentious of subjects - prejudice, -  racial or ethnic, take your choice.  I look to where I came from, my origins, and then look at what affects my life today.  I come to the inevitable conclusions that prejudice is illogical , not Christian, and most certainly not productive.   My Grandfather, William Hogan, and Grandmother, Mary Ellen, were part of the Irish diaspora that took place in the latter part of the 19th Century. William Hogan was born in 1857 in Cappoquin and Mary Ellen in 1860 in Cork. The Great Irish Famine took place over the years 1845 - 1852 when approximately one million died; the Irish population fell by 25% due to death and emigration. Ireland’s rural population had rapidly grown in the Nineteenth Century. This was because a large family was an insurance of continued
Read more

I was called a Flat Earther

Image
Gordon Brown called me a "Flat Earther" FPI trawler in ice. In December 2009 the Prime Minister, Mr.Gordon Brown, called me a "Flat Earther". His remarks were pointedly directed at anyone who harboured any scepticism of Climate Change and that included me. Now I am a retired Master Mariner so that epithet seemed somewhat silly as I have spent a life time sailing over the horizon and not falling over the edge of the world. Anyway I have decided to briefly write about my experieces at sea and let you judge me and tell me if I deserve the sobriquet "Flat Earther". In 1954 my Father indentured me to Sir William Readon Smith & Sons of Cardiff, tramp ship owners, as an Apprentice Deck Officer. I was just sixteen years of age. My life long affair with weather and climate started at the same time as my voyage to command and management in shipping. I was eight years with tramp ships, man and boy, and sailed away for anything up to a year circling th
Read more