07th Feb 2021

Albert Little R.I.P.

The funeral of our good friend Albert was be held on Thursday 11th February 1.30pm at Forest Road Crematorium, a cold day but despite that we still had a nice club turnout. All but a few of the club members present were able to attend the service, there is currently still a limit due to Covid restrictions of 30 people for funerals. As is the St Chads tradition at funerals, we were all able to provide a final guard of honour for Albert at the entrance as he was carried into the service. Albert was a lovely man, he always had a smile on his face and a cheerful word to say. We will miss him very much. .

If you would like to read the service programme then please click here. Here is the tribute Albert's son Andrew read out at the service: -

Whatever your relationship was with dad/Albert he would often look at you with a knowing smile to remind you he could also be called ‘Mr perfect’. For all of those who knew him, he always had a good sense of humour. If he was not cracking a joke or ten, he probably wasn't feeling well. The humour was also a sign of how pleased he was to see you.

He was mainly a quiet, unassuming man, always at the side of group photos quietly blending into the background at gatherings, but he was friendly to everyone and good company. He wanted to see everyone happy and never liked it when there were any bad feelings between people.

His thoughtfulness was shown in a variety of ways. Whether it was affection by giving you a nickname - he gave nicknames to mum’s younger sisters; Sue was ‘Sid’, Christine was ‘Bridget’ and Josie was ‘Fifi’ – or the thought and planning that went into his presents at birthdays, Christmas, or other out of the blue gifts.

These unexpected gifts had an enormous influence on me. When I was 7/8/9 years old he came home from work with a record player and a bag of 45’s/singles. It was my introduction into the world of rock and roll music and vinyl.

If dad weren’t working then Sunday mornings was crooner time - Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and others at full volume, that turned out to be a sign we could also go upstairs and play our music loud in our rooms

When we were growing up and as youngsters, we occasionally make mistakes. But dad saw that as part of the learning process, he never got angry or blamed you. He always had your back - first of all usually by making you a cup of tea or as he would often say ‘a rotten cup of tea’. He always encouraged you to live life and to enjoy yourself.

The occasional 0 to 60 impatient reaction - the shock of normally quiet man resorting to raising his voice - was only seen when you left the front door open and were letting cold air into the warm house or when the five minutes telephone call led to half an hour, or in Joanna's case, two hours.

When Joanna and I briefly dabbled unsuccessfully in truancy at school it was met with disappointment but no big telling off as I was expecting. This may have been due to the fact dad used to bunk off school himself to swim in the local canal, but this stopped when Mr Fishman became his teacher. He would often talk about good influence he had on him; to be well behaved and work hard. The two school reports by Mr fisherman are evidence of his impressive progress across all subjects but physical training was the highest and most consistent of all his grades.

As a family we would go on many trips to museums and art galleries; dad would take me to see Leyton Orient and Arsenal as well as going on holidays to the Isle of Wight. Childhood memories of being in the back of the Ford escort coming home late from Harlow parties covered up with blankets to keep warm. Or Saturday nights at home when we all pushed the settee forward in front of the fire to watch James Bond films and The Generation Game. The Saturday night treats of chocolate and sweets were provided by mum while dad sorted out the drinks, Party 7 shandies and snowballs.

Joanne vividly remembers the time when mum had to go into hospital for an operation and that took over to cooking for 10 days it turned out his speciality was spaghetti Bolognese and that is what we had every night!

My last memory was of the time dad saved my life. In the car on the way to Clacton for a holiday, my three and a half years old self made it very clear all I wanted to do was to go in the outside swimming pool. When we arrived, I made a mad dash to jump straight into the pool, in the deep end of course. Thankfully, those physical training good grades were put into very good use because as I was under water, unable to swim, a lifesaving hand plucked me from the deep waters and had me back safely on land again.

I will miss you dad and so were many other family and friends so I shall leave you with one of dad’s parting comments – ‘Up the O’s!’

Pat has requested that the club and members do not send a wreath or flowers but instead make a donation to a charity of their choosing, either the RNLI, Marie Curie or Air Ambulance Service . With each of these it is possible to gift-aid your donation which costs you nothing extra but gains the charity another 25% of your donation i.e. if you donate £10 then that is worth £12.50 to the charity. You can do this in one of the donation steps, all you need to do is tick a gift-aid box. An example from Marie Curie is below, other charities have something very similar.