Dick West 06.11.21 - 09.01.13 – aged 91 years George Derrick West, known evermore as Dick was born on 06.11.21 in Walthamstow E17, the only child of George Thomas and Clara Eleanor (nee Kingwell). Dick attended the Beal School in Ilford, Essex and won a place at Oxford University where he was to study architecture. Unfortunately World War II scuppered those plans and he enlisted into the RAF. During his time in the RAF where he rose to the rank of Corporal, Dick brought home spitfires using radio frequency equipment when he was stationed in Kent – he would send out the signals for them to pick up and they would home in on them and get safely back to their airfields. He later went abroad to South Africa, India and Ceylon where he made topological relief maps for the RAF airmen to be able to visualise and recognise the terrain they were flying over, to ensure that their targets were correct. At that time a friend of Dick’s regularly wrote home to a girlfriend who arranged, with very little persuasion, for her WREN friend, Pat Howard, to also write to Dick. He would send her little drawings and self portraits and photos to keep her interested! They finally met up together after Dick returned home from the war in 1945. Love bloomed and they married on 16 August 1947, the same year as the Queen and Prince Philip. Dick and Pat started married life with Dick’s parents, George and Clara in Goodmayes, Essex and later moved down to Herne Bay in Kent where their only daughter, Geri, was born 3 years later. Eventually Dick and Pat moved from Kent into Brentwood, Essex and Dick started work as a rep for Marley Tiles. This later led to his becoming Sales Director of a company in Hornchurch and after some years there he broke away and started up a business of his own called Anglia Waterproofing Systems. He and Pat ran the business very successfully until he sold it when he retired at 70. By then they were living in Billericay and Geri was living round the corner with their two grandchildren, Cathy and Stuart. Dick and Pat spent many happy times enjoying their grandchildren and taking them off for weekends of fun in what was affectionately known as ‘Nana’s Hut’ in Suffolk and entertaining them to tea after school. They took ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ lessons, entering competitions and winning medals and cups for their prowess. During the time when Dick was a member of the Prince Leopold Lodge there were many social functions and Ladies Nights to be able to show off their dancing skills, the highlight of which was when he became Grand Master of the Lodge and he and Pat had their own Ladies Night at the Café Royal in London. Later on, when the dancing had to stop due to Dick’s prevalence for DVTs if he happened to knock his legs, they both started to learn Tai Chi instead to keep them fit and stay in shape. They both stopped smoking (and drinking neat scotch!) and started a fitness regime that lasted well into their early 80s. After Geri married Mike in 1986, Dick and Pat inherited two more grandchildren, Lisa and Stuart. All four grandchildren have since married and had children of their own including awaiting a first baby boy due in May for Lisa, which will make 8 great-grandchildren in total. The now extended family have had many good times together over the years, including the last big family ‘do’ which was for Dick’s 90th birthday in November 2011. Dick loved driving and owned almost as many cars during his lifetime as his great age. He took the Advanced Driving Test and became a life-long member. He was once taken by a friend who worked for the CID onto a police skid pan where they taught him to drive as fast as he could into a road full of oil and he loved it. He always drove safely but really loved a fast motorway! He only stopped driving about 3 years ago when he became physically immobile but he had by then the use of a motorised scooter which still needed his driving skills for manoevering himself round the house, although latterly Mike has had to go round after him with the polyfilla! After retirement they moved down to Blackboys in 1995 to live in a specially built annexe to Geri and Mike’s house, and they enjoyed exploring the length and breadth of Sussex by car and also taking their dogs for walks. Dick took up drawing and water-colour painting – something he had always been good at but had no time for before, and this started a prolific run of creative work, some of which is still hanging in doctor’s surgeries and other people’s houses as well as in various members of the family’s homes. After very little persuasion by Geri, who already worked there, Dick and Pat both enrolled as volunteers at their local community hospital in Uckfield, East Sussex for a period of 5 years and both received a commemorative certificate for their contributions to helping local people when they 'retired' from there a few years ago. Dick had worked in the Minor Injuries Unit, clerking people in, and his meticulous records are still in place in old record books. Dick had a lifelong passion for music and learned to play the ukelele, banjo, guitar and piano/organ keyboards. He was still playing tunes to Pat just before Christmas although he was beginning to forget the keyboard settings to give the full orchestral versions! Many a happy time recently has been when the great grandchildren visited in order to dance to 'Big' Grandad's electric keyboard tunes. Dick and Pat enjoyed numerous holidays and really loved cruises which took them all over the world. They also enjoyed happy holidays with the family, the highlight of which, according to Dick, was a 2-seater plane flight from Megeve Airport in France for just the two of them, flying right over Mont Blanc when they literally went off into the blue together. Dick and Pat had 65 wonderfully happy, married years together; and recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary together last year (along with the Queen and Prince Philip) and received a royal card from the Queen to mark the occasion. Dick’s ‘Dash’ – that is - the hyphen dash between his date of birth and date of passing, was a long and happy one and he will be remembered fondly for his sense of fun, his awful jokes, his patience and kindness and his dedication to his wife Pat, and his strong will to get things done immediately (which could be infuriating at times when he was standing over your shoulder apparently taking an interest, but you knew that he was really checking you were doing it properly!) All in all, such a lovely man who will be greatly missed by all those whose lives were better for having known him.