The first of three articles about my parents, who were each born a century ago this year.
Thoughts of my parents have been in my mind this summer, as they were both born a century ago in 1921 – mum on 25 June and dad on 23 July. Most of the thoughts are pleasant ones, I must say. My memories of them are very happy – at least until we got to the turn of the century and mum’s four-year long descent into dementia.
I was – and remain – immensely proud of what they achieved in their lives, given where they started and their relative lack of formal education.
Neither parent came from a prosperous background, their origins being working class families struggling in the harsh economic conditions of the twenties and thirties –in Manchester, and south London.
My father, Colin Frank Cheek, was born in the south London suburb of West Dulwich on 23 July 1921.
His father’s first wife had died before the First World War, leaving three children, Jim, Ted and Marion, and Colin was the only child of the second marriage.
During the mid-1920s, his father contracted Tuberculosis, and was unable to work from then until his death in 1937. This was a heavy burden for Colin and his mother to bear in those pre-Welfare State days, and life was very difficult indeed at times and brought an early end to dad’s promising school career, where he’d excelled in sport – representing the school in athletics, cricket and football. He did well in the classroom as well, achieving both academic and commercial qualifications. In the years prior to World War Two, these enabled him to obtain good jobs in central London.
In 1941, Colin volunteered for service in the RAF. He received training as a wireless operator, and saw service in Northern Ireland, Blackpool, Morecambe and latterly West Africa. It was whilst on pre-embarkation training in Morecambe in 1944 that he first met my mother – on the dance floor at the Floral Hall.
On his return to civilian life in 1946, he joined the Civil Service as a Clerical Officer. Margery came to London to work for Shell, staying as a lodger with Colin and his mother. Margery and Colin married in September 1948, and their son Christopher was born in December 1950.
Dad’s civil service career prospered as he was promoted, first to Executive Officer and later to Higher Executive Officer. He saw service with various departments at both the Inland Revenue and latterly Customs & Excise and it was a transfer within Customs which saw Margery and Colin move north to Lancaster in 1979. He retired in 1983.
Throughout his life, Colin was a keen and able sportsman – he played cricket and football for the Inland Revenue club, only stopping football at the age of 37 and cricket until well past 50. He played on the wing in football and in cricket was a highly regarded wicket keeper and a hard-hitting if somewhat wayward batsman.
He then took up golf, which he played with some pleasure and much frustration until last year. He joined Morecambe Golf Club shortly after moving into the area and in retirement, he took on the role of Treasurer of Lancaster Conservative Club, a post he held for over ten years. Through membership of the two clubs, he made many friends in the area.
Dad died of a heart attack, aged 83, collapsing in the street in Lancaster on 4 November 2004, two days after mum’s funeral.
He was a very thoughtful, careful man, a talented woodworker and artist (we still have both furniture he made and pictures he painted) and gifted DIY guy. He was never a reader of books, but an assiduous reader of his Daily Telegraph every day. He loved music of all kinds - but was especially fond of jazz and swing, about which he was also very knowledgeable. I deeply regret that his early and sudden death prevented us from carrying out our plans to give him some time in which to enjoy and indulge himself after looking after mum so well for those four exhausting years. But, sadly, it was not to be.
You can read about my mum's life in the next article, here.