My lovely grandpa Charles passed away very suddenly 50 years ago in 1974. He was 73.

My mother was an only child who was much loved by both of her parents. The three of them always had a good and happy relationship and I never heard my mother say one bad word about her parents or they of her.

Grandpa was a gentle, kind and loving husband, father and grandfather. He never owned a home and he and grandma worked hard all their lives until they settled into a quiet retirement. His one material possession was a maroon Ford Anglia car which he kept beautifully clean and polished. On Sundays he and Grandma Anne would drive my brother and me to “the Rose Gardens” (as we called them) in Regent’s Park. Grandpa had one other smaller mechanical possession – a cine camera with which he took films of his two grandchildren and also of his beloved and cherished wife Anne. He occasionally set up a portable screen in the living room of their one bedroom flat and showed us films of ourselves! The quality was never good but we enjoyed these mini film shows.

When my father Leslie proposed to my mother, grandpa accepted his new son-in-law-to-be with the same kindness and respect that he showed to everyone. The only objection he raised to my father was his sartorial faux pas of wearing blue socks with brown shoes. Other than that he never criticised his daughter’s choice of husband.

Grandpa was a real “gentleman”. If he passed a lady of his acquaintance he would doff his hat, raising it slightly by the brim and tipping it forward.. If he was walking along the street with me or mum or grandma he would insist on walking on the kerbside of the pavement. He enjoyed watching wrestling on the television even though he knew that the matches were stage managed. He loved the music of Judy Garland, he read history books from the library. Grandpa did most of the cooking at home as grandma was crippled with arthritis and every step she took was painful and standing for any length of time was impossible.

As a grandfather he was just the best. Always available for trips to the park, for regular pocket money and for quiet afternoons in his and grandma’s flat playing cards or watching television giving my brother and me squares of Cadbury’s dairy milk chocolate, a dish of potato puffs and “one large green olive” from the jar in the fridge. Small pleasures, a quiet life but a thoroughly decent one in which I hope that my brother and I gave him as much pleasure as he bequeathed us with our very happy and secure childhood. A thoroughly kind and decent gentleman.