Gerry Wilford

“Always Loved, never forgotten and forever missed.” Beloved husband of Sheila, devoted Dad, Grandad and Great Grandad.

Gerry Passed away peacefully in Leighton Hospital on 12th October aged 97 years.

Sheila’s tribute to her devoted husband is: “he loved me more than he loved himself,
he selflessly and lovingly put me first in every way”.
He and Sheila would have celebrated their ruby wedding anniversary on 31 st
December, he will always be much loved by all his family including his grandchildren
Saul, Nick, James, David, Krista, Harry, Richard, George, Ellie and six great
grandchildren, the generations who will take forward memories of him.
He had an inspirational work ethic and never missed a day except for perhaps a bout
of flu. Back in the day, he shovelled tons of coal into a train engine in one day and
was renowned for punctuality. He didn’t need an alarm to get up at 5am for his shift
and the day owed him nothing, as soon as he got home it was a quick wash, a
couple of sandwiches and out in the garden.
When he met Sheila, he had a passion for motorbikes and couldn’t drive a car, but
his licence allowed him to drive a Reliant Robin, a puddle jumper as he called it –
after a fair bit of encouragement from Sheila, he did take driving lessons and quickly
passed his test.
Gerry had an easy, cheerful demeanour, and was generous with his emotions, time
and money. He was patient with his family until he wasn’t and then he could be a
little grumpy! Well, he was in his nineties and his energy levels diminished as the
last very energetic generation arrived, but he has left the legacy of being the most
amazing grandad.
He was strong, supportive, and incredibly wise – a constant, stable influence with the
patience to sit and listen and ready with sound advice. He always saw both sides to
an argument and had the remarkable skill of remaining very balanced in discussions,
earning him a great deal of respect with people especially in his role of Branch
Chairman of Crewe Communication Workers Union at the post office.
When watching TV, his interests were varied and included religious programmes.
He loved athletics – particularly The Diamond League Series featuring athletes from
around the world. With interest he watching documentaries presented by the likes of
Richard Attenborough, nature programmes, Michael Palin’s round the world and
Michael Portillo’s train journeys.
Gaynor told me he had a passion for trains and latterly he was resting peacefully but
suddenly said in his sleep, ‘6204 – the Queens own’ and she googled it. When he
woke, she showed him a picture of the train and he lovingly sighed, “there she is,
hard work but beautiful!”
He was always very active and as the wonderful order of service portrays, he was an
avid cross-country runner. Both he and Sheila loved the outdoors and through their
love of walking, they met their dear friends Jean and the late Ivor.
Gaynor and Ian shared some lovely stories of Gerry. ‘He was born in in Crewe in
1925 to a lady called Hazel, and some weeks later, he was adopted by a widowed
lady called Elizabeth Jones, or as my dad would call her “My Mam” – he would

describe her as a wonderful woman and would tell us many tales of when she went
to deliver a baby in the village, or to lay someone out after they had died, and he
often went to help her. She already had 8 children of her own – 5 daughters and 3
sons.
He loved telling us tales from when he was a young boy living in Barbridge, always
with a laugh. Things like walking to school (which he always called Calveley Council)
– apparently he had to walk 1 9/10 of a mile each way – he said that if it had been
two miles he would have been able to get the bus!
He would remember when the coal was delivered and because the coal house
adjoined the front room the dust would go everywhere. He would also tell us about
the old tin bath hanging up on the wall and it being used just once a week as there
was no running water in those days. Life was very hard, and dad reminisced about
the time he came home and found his Mam crying – she was upset because she had
no food for tea. Dad told her she soon would have and went to find his friend Dick
Whitkiss – they went and caught a rabbit and then he crawled through the farmers
fence and got a turnip – dad remembered that his Mam made a lovely rabbit stew!
When he was a young man, he was in Calveley Church Choir – he told us that he
would walk two miles to the church three times a day on Sunday, bought it was worth
it because he got tuppence a service for his singing!
As he grew older the dark clouds of the 2nd World War gather, and because he was
not yet old enough to join the regular army he joined the Home Guard – dad had so
many amusing tales from those times that, if I didn’t know better, I would say that
Croft and Perry had based Dad’s Army on conversations with him (except some of
dad’s tales were even funnier – things like the time one of his mates had shot his rifle
at a lone German bomber that had got lost on the way to Liverpool, or on another
occasion when another chap had got his bayonet stuck in a tree when he was
messing about – dad would say “he was nearly up on a charge” and laugh!.
During the war, dad spent a lot of time as a machine gun instructor based on
Anglesey – and it was at this time that he developed a lifelong love for the island and
Wales in general. Eventually he was sent to Egypt for 6 months and when Paul and I
went to Egypt he asked me to bring back a map so he could look up the two twin
camps along the Suez Canal that his detachment was deployed to work from with
several corps of African soldiers – lots of smiles when he was remembering this
time.
After the war, dad went back to being a fireman on the railway, before becoming a
signal box builder for 13 years and eventually a postman serving as the branch
chairman of the union for many years.
A few years ago, there was a special event at Liverpool where the three Cunard
queens were on the Mersey together and we went along to see. Dad had a really
lovely day and I said not many 90-year-olds have come out to see the 3 queens
today….and dad replied, “and not many of them will have been here when the
Mauretania was launched in 1938!”

Gerry’s funeral will take place at Crewe Crematorium Chapel on Wednesday 26th October at 1:45pm

Donations in memory of Gerry will be gratefully received &  given to The George Heath Foundation. The foundation was established in 2016 in memory of Gerry’s grandson George who tragically lost his life aged 20 years.

For further information and to offer your condolences, please telephone our funeral home on 01270 584447.