Alan Jeffrey Stringer

“You are no more than a thought away”

Alan passed away peacefully surrounded by his family in Leighton Hospital on Monday 21st March 2022 aged 74 years.

Much loved dad of James and Alex who will be sadly missed by all his family & friends.

His funeral took place on Wednesday 30th March 2022 at Crewe Crematorium Chapel at 11.30am

Kind donations for Macmillan @ Leighton Hospital

For further information and to offer your condolences, please telephone our Funeral Home on 01270 584447

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We gathered to say a goodbye to Alan Stringer, a devoted dad to James and Alex,
the man whose mission in life was to give them the very best he could.
He lovingly used to greet James with “hiya Matey or “how you doing Matey?” and
his pet name for Alex was Poppet or Popp. If either of them asked for a pound, he
would give them a tenner and if he only had twenty-pound left, he would gladly give it
to them – well to be honest, even if it was his last, he could a few beers from his
mates! In return, James and Alex gave him an abundance of love and joy.
There were many more special people in Alan’s life, he was a doting grandad Al to
Dottie, or daddydaddy as she manages to call him, he loved getting regular photos
and videos of her and he spoke to her by phone every day, helped by Alex of course!
He was also a much-loved brother to Pam who lives in Australia, and it was delightful
to speak to her on the phone. Amongst the many things she told me, she praised
Alan for being a wonderful older brother to Ian, our kid as Alan fondly called him;
They also had a middle sister Linda who sadly passed away long before they were
ready to say goodbye.
Alan was a dear bother in law to Gary and to Liz, a fantastic father-in-law to David or
Duckie as Alan always called him and fond of James’s girlfriend Becks.
He was an uncle, a great uncle and a good mate to many especially the regulars at
the Military Arms and known to some over the years as ‘Stringer’.
Remembering Alan
Alan was welcomed into the world by his mum Nellie on 6 th January 1948 and when
his dad Joseph got a job at Shell in Carrington, the family moved to Partington.
Alan was naturally bright and attended Lymm Grammar School, but his passion was
football rather than academia. It seems he was a good left winger and played for
several amateur clubs including Altrincham and although his football career ended,
he did go onto train at the Cliff with some Man U players and Pam says one of Alan’s
best friends in his younger days was a groundsman at Old Trafford. He also used to
drink in the Three Arrows Pub in Prestwich with footballers Lou Macari, Jimmy and
Brian Greenoff.
It seems it was his love of football that led to him leaving home at the age of
nineteen because he had a big row with his dad when he refused to buy Alan the
football boots he wanted – and Alan never let that go! He never made it big but he
was just as big a character as George Best!
After leaving school, Alan was a toffee rep for Shaws so, very popular with all the
kids – “let’s have a root in the boot” he used to say as he looked for samples and
stray toffees to give out. Pam seems to think he became a salesman for Curtain
King in Salford whilst doing Business Studies in the evening at Manchester
University and then went on to get a sales position with IBM for a while but his career
in sales took him all over the world.
He worked for several computer companies over the years but no matter who he
worked for; he was hugely successful – he won salesman of the year multiple times,

winning fabulous, all expenses paid trips to places like Monaco and Nice and lots of
perks like huge, posh Christmas hampers every year.
He was immensely proud of the time he worked on the sales team at Ferranti
International plc during the early 90s. He sold government mainframe computers
and other electronics.
Going back to before James and Alex were born, Alan took a shine to Gail when she
occasionally helped her friend clean his flat in Prestwich although he knew her from
when she worked in the corner shop and after they married in 1986, he used to tell
people he married his paper girl!
They initially lived at the flat but then moved to a house in St Annes Road, Prestwich
where they had a dog called Charlie, more like a first-born child judging by the
number of photographs he took!
They then moved to Cotton Lane in Sandbach. James was born in 1990 followed by
Alex two years later and they both remember the fantastic family holidays they had
staying in the best accommodation – the pre-requisite was always style and flare in
places like Antigua, Tenerife, a luxurious villa in Cyprus, the South of France and to
Australia to visit Pam with a detour to Borneo to see Orangutangs.
They also used to go to the Lakes a lot with their four dogs, staying at the Glen
Riding Hotel on Lake Windermere, which was top notch back in the day, with its own
kennels for pampered pets.
After moving to Sandbach, Alan made lots of new mates. He loved his golf and
enjoyed lots of golfing trips to Portugal. He played pro-celebrity golf competitions for
charity and although he was a member of Sandbach Golf Club, he played at many
other places.
He was keen on sport, he loved going to the theatre and he may have even worked
at the Opera House in his younger days. All his life he loved a good night out and in
his younger days Pam remembers he used to go dancing to the Sand’s disco above
the Arndale in Stretford. Holidays were integral to his life and one of his memorable
trips was when he took Ian to Thailand. They experienced the Full Moon party on
Hat Tin Beach. The boats take the revelers to Ko Pha-ngan Island and leave them
there overnight then return the next morning to pick them up.
There were so many adventurous things Alan did, he started his own energy brokers
in the mid to late nineties and carried on until he retired due to ill health although I
believe Alex took over for five years when Alan became ill.
James and Alex are proud of him owning a golf clothing shop on one of the hundreds
of floors at the impressive Grand China Princess, first class Hotel in the heart of
Chinatown in Bangkok and ran it for several years.
He also opened a Thai massage parlour called ‘Alan’ popular with people staying in
the swanky hotel, en route to other destinations and his business ventures in Asia
spanned six years, he only finished when he became ill.

As he got older and dafter Alan was known as Del Boy. He was always up for a
good laugh, usually at someone else’s expense, like the time he gave his mate Gav
a fake scratch card and Gav thought he had won a hundred thousand pounds.
In his earlier years before he met Gail, he lived in Ibiza for a time. He and his mates
set up a fake but elaborate press conference on the beach at San Antonio to cover
the story of their pal AKA Pierre Le Coq, swimming the Mediterranean. Alan was
looking out to sea for the intrepid swimmer to come into view and as Pierre Le Coq
emerged, he was helped out of the water using his last bit of strength to struggle
ashore, when in reality he had only swam around the corner, the crowd gathered on
the beach were looking on in awe and if there was any fundraising going on for his
incredible achievement – the funds were probably in aid of an extra week in Ibiza!
SO many unforgettable stories and not enough time to tell them all, but that is the
beauty of remembrance, memories are locked in the heart to access whenever you
need.

May he rest is peace