Thank you everyone for joining us to celebrate the life of John. In his early years he was known as Alfie.

Born in Fulham in 1931, Alfie was the third of four boys of Jess and Harry Reeves. At the age of three, Alfie lost his own father in a tragic industrial accident. Leaving Jess to bring up four boys in war torn London; not an easy task. Dad never talked about the time he was evacuated off to Wales in the war, except they drank condensed milk in their tea. So thank you Frank for filling in some of the gaps. As Dad’s younger brother, Frank has explained that John passing the 11 plus in 1942, was their ticket out of South Wales and they moved to Addlestone. An appendicitis at 15 years resulted in an end to Alfie’s schooling.

Coming back to London after the war, he did various clerical jobs until conscription to the RAF aged 18 where he did his two years Military Service as a Medical Orderly in a Hospital in Germany. Always caring for others he also worked in a Children’s home.

Life completely changed for John, when he met Mum, who was lodging with John’s aunt and uncle Edie and Bill Sadler. Considered by Mum to be ‘scruffy’ and ‘uncouth’ John proposed to Mum and so on 26th March 1955 Pam and John were married and answering an advert in the local newspaper, they arrived in Lydbrook, in the Forest of Dean for a new live together. The very next day, Dad went off to look for a job and found himself working at the Cable Works in the village.

John and Pam had five children who all grew up in Hazel Cottage, Vention Lane, Lydbrook. A happy family house which was extended and extended as the family grew and the grandchildren arrived. Hazel Cottage was the family home for six decades. In his later years, once Hazel Cottage was sold, Dad was so pleased to visit Hazel Cottage again and see the new owners, a young family restoring the cottage and making it in to a true happy family home again.

He continued his job at the Cable Works, which at its height had 1,100 employees, through in to the 1960’s when he took up a position at Woodville. He soon branched out on his own with a business partner to start up Precision Pressings, then in the early 1970’s he started R&D Pressings with Chris Darkes. A highly successful yet small family business which went on to generate a comfortable income for the Reeves family for over 20 years. Dad retired in the 1990’s leaving his son Richard to run the business.

Frank remembers John as a man who through sheer hard work and determination gained, together with Pam, well-deserved success. Initially they had no money at all, did not borrow from the bank, there was no wealthy uncle or aunt in the background to support them, John had no father, no role models, no education to speak of, yet an ambition and a determination to make the best of his life.

But there was far more to Dad than hard work and family. He had a love of exploring Europe and took us on annual holidays to France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and the then Yugoslavia. Never learning a foreign language he managed to drive us all there, enjoy a holiday, and back again with only ever using his version of one foreign word, Ahhg So. The European holidays were not the usual ones people had back in the 1970’s, destinations were normally off the beaten track and also involved piles of old stones to look at and always a beach and the sea for the children to play in, even though Dad had a fear for water and never learnt to swim!!!

Mum and Dad’s love of the European holidays saw them buy a static caravan in the South of France in the late 70’s and then quickly upgrade to a cottage in Umbria, Italy. Their love of Italy was stamped further in the late 1980’s when they bought an old dilapidated farmhouse in Mongiovino, Umbria and refurbished in to a second home. Never one to go in an aeroplane, because of his fear of heights, for nearly three decades Dad drove down to Italy two or three times a year, so they could enjoy the Italian lifestyle. They made many friends in the area and had a wonderful ‘other’ life in Italy. As Mum rarely drove, I calculated Dad has probably driven nearly a third of a million miles in his lifetime, which is no mean feat.

Dad was also a long serving volunteer with the Samaritans, supporting anyone that needed help, and becoming the Chair of the Samaritans in his final years with the Charity. As children we often wondered why he left the house in the early evening with a sleeping bag explaining he was ‘going to see a man about a dog’ but never returned with a dog!!! As we grew in to adults and moved away from the area, his work with the Samaritans was unveiled.

The Samaritans was not the only charity Dad supported, he was a generous supporter of Save the Children, Oxfam and many other international charities which help people. His later involvement with Tools with a Mission, which is our nominated charity for today, gathers unwanted tools, cleans them up, sorts them in to kits and sends them across the world for people to build and create their own livelihoods.

Ann remembers John as a quiet and very caring man, a man of few words, and his priority was always his family. Ann considered it a privilege to be part of John and Pam’s life. John would often ring to check all was OK when Ann was having a problem. John was a good man and it was an honour to have played a small part in his life. 

Cousin Nick explained ‘I am sure your mum and dad have helped lots of people over the years and that's something I'm sure you are all proud of.’ 

Wendy has fond memories of John. Always welcoming the family when they arrived ‘en famille’ for week-ends or weddings at Lydbrook. Or popping in to see them in Sheffield when John and Pam were on their way to Sarah’s. He will be sadly missed.

John, and Pam, cared and helped many people in their lives: our family home meant a great deal to many – being a place to feel safe and happy, no matter what was going on. 

For us children and grandchildren, Dad was a caring, hard-working, family man. He’d wake us up in the mornings, enjoy playing games with us, bath us in the evening and sing his ‘Birds and the Bees’ song to us at bedtime. Laugh with us at the TV with Monty Pythons Flying Circus (much to the disgust of Mum) and Faulty Towers – play cricket in any spot we could find space – endless games of cards, chess, draughts and monopoly when he happily cheated to make sure he won – spread the dining room table with train sets. Other fond memories include Sunday afternoons with Dad doing the accounts in his book, handwritten and calculated in his head, not needing calculators. Making us (normally Richard and I) fill up the campsite water bottles if we said the words ’Get Lost’ to one of our siblings – even emptying them in front of us and making us fill them up again if we thought it was safe to say ‘Get Lost’ because the water bottles were full! – I remember one holiday when some campers took pity on Richard and I as we were struggling back to camp with a water bottle bigger then both of us. We were always made to do our fair share. 

Never doing up his shoelaces except in his later years when his memory started to go and he started to tie them! – picking up cigarette stubs around the town of Coleford because he felt in his later years that he was not giving enough to society – Dora Matthews House that he called Nora Batties because he could never remember the name of his home – his enjoyment gained by making tea on Fridays for the other residents in Dora Matthews – his incredible memory for retaining numbers, yet little else - his arguments with electricity companies because he was always after a better deal – his endless task of working on his Family History – his love of books, the look, the feel and then the read – his love of art, especially statues – his huge success of the History of Lydbrook exhibition in the late 1970’s – his love of classical music and the opera – never drank alcohol – never smoked – put a garden fork right through his big toe whilst digging up the potatoes – looking after all of us children on a Saturday whilst Mum went to Gloucester shopping; lumpy mash potato and burnt sausages and lumpy banana custard as our Saturday lunch. And Fulham Football Club; he would have been over the moon that Fulham have made it back in to the Premier League.

Dad managed to defy death on a number of occasions – heart attack in 2008, then severe bleeds on the brain in 2015, but there was always a reason to live. I once heard him say to Mum ‘I love you more than all the tea in China’ and he did. When Mum died last August, Dad missed her terribly, he had cared for her for all his adult life and especially during the last few years. He was lonely, lost and heartbroken without her. So after we all took on board the sad news of the 10th May that Dad had died peacefully in his sleep, we were relieved that his loneliness and suffering was over. There is a sweetness to the sadness. He is now at peace with his beloved wife, Pamela.