Father's day this year holds many memories of my Dad. Dad died 10 years ago tomorrow. As opposed to feeling melancholy I thought I would do a little thread about him. So here goes.

My dad was born in the East End of London on 6.8.1919 the youngest son of a warm and loving Irish family. From an early age he was good at painting and so upon leaving school he became an apprentice lithographer. The world was changing around him as a young man 2/

He witnessed the Cable Street riots led by Oswald Moseley and his bunch of facists. Dad allegedly threw pepper and bricks on them from a garage. He witnessed the inevitable outbreak of war and was initially conscripted into the Beds and Herts and stationed in Rothbury 3/

He would frequently go out and draw his surroundings. The Army though had other ideas for him and realising his talent as an artist he was transferred to the Royal Engineers Survey Company and put aboard a troop ship bound for Egypt. Dad was always the one for 4/

...playing in the fool and it was whilst onboard ship that he decided to play the fool by balancing on a barrel and fell, breaking is elbow. This was re-set without anaesthetic (ouch) and he was advised once in Cairo to strengthen it by taking up weight lifting. This he did 5/

Life, Dad says was mostly boring and to pass the time he would paint or occasionally they would have scarab beetle races whereby each beetle would have a number painted on it and they would bet on a winner. Dad often said that days later when on duty, you would ocassionally 6/

...see No. 4 or whatever creeping across your boot. His job was to map the desert but he also drew for pleasure and had his paintings exhibited. I am the custodian of those beautiful works of art and they are scattered throughout my house. He met his lifelong friend 7/

...whilst in the Army abd together they would arrange concert parties for the Company at Christmas, Dad playing one of the ugly sisters in Cinderella. On the whole he would say he had a relatively safe war. He would eventually come home to my mum and begin to raise a 8/

...a young family. War over and he continued painting for some of the top commercial art firms in London during the 60s and 70s. His art work could be seen in various newspapers, advertising hoardings and magazines throughout the UK. Up until his 90s he would be 9/

Climbing ladders to work on house. He was a fab gardener, a fixer-upper, fun, obstinate, a superb artist & very much, after the war, a pacifist. His legacy is in his art work and I am so very proud of him. All art in this thread is dad's. My pics don't do them justice. END