This site is a tribute to Clive Cole, who was born on October 04, 1929. He is much loved and will always be remembered.

THE EULOGY

Clive made a great success of his life – despite what many would see as an inauspicious start.  He entered the world in Willesden on the 4^th October 1929, the younger of two sons born to Lily and Henry, who was a master baker.

Sadly, when he was just a toddler, his parents separated and Clive – and his late brother Henry, always known as Dookie – had quite a disjointed upbringing, moving around a lot.  In his early years, Clive spent a great deal of time with his childhood friend John Walter, whose mother was almost a surrogate mum to Clive as he was growing up.

The Second World War broke out when he was just ten years old and Clive was evacuated to Hertfordshire.  But, again, this was not a straightforward process;  Clive went to five different homes in Berkhamsted, and also Biddenham in Bedfordshire, interspersed with stays back in London with his mother when Clive and his friends used to collect bits of shrapnel from the local park.

He was close to Lily and used to write to her regularly, updating her with his news.  He often recalled one occasion when on arrival at his new ‘home’,  Lady  Stevens, with whom he was billeted,  burnt his clothes and bought him “two of everything except shoes and pullovers”!

His secondary schooling took place in Berkhamsted;  earlier this year, Clive, Liz, and Mike took a nostalgic trip to the town and Clive found his old school, one of his old houses, and even a pub that was a local landmark in his childhood, and where Clive, Liz and Mike enjoyed a lovely lunch together.

He was certainly a clever boy…but due largely to his disrupted early years, he didn’t take any formal exams.  All that later wisdom that his friends came to appreciate so much, came from his subsequent self-education through his passion for reading factual and historical works.

In 1947, at the age of 18, he was called up for National Service and served in the RAF, during one of the coldest winters on record, where he was stationed at RAF Leuchars on the north-east coast of Scotland as a radio operator.  He remembered his morse code for the rest of his life.

Two years later, back in London, he got work with Shell at London Bridge…but then, due to a connection with the artistic film director Terence Marsh, was given an opportunity with the shopfitting company Sprekleys where he stayed for a couple of years before joining HJ Knights where he progressed through the ranks and spent the rest of his career.

He was always a very athletic and sporty young man and, while in London, started playing rugby for Old Creightonians.  Indeed, it was during this period of his life that he met John Benge who, in a few minutes, is going to tell us more about the Clive he knew and loved.

In 1963, at a wedding of a friend, he met a young nurse from North Yorkshire who went by the name of Liz.  She was at the wedding with her parents who were family friends of the bride…and, after meeting Clive, she told them that she had just met the man she was going to marry.  And she did (with John Benge as Best Man)…four years to the day after that first meeting, on the 26^th August 1967 and lived in a basement flat in Pimlico.

HJ Knights was based in the then not-very-salubrious Caledonian Road…where, on one very frightening occasion, Clive was held up at gunpoint in the local bank!  Wanting to escape from London he and Liz chose to settle in Farnham Royal, near John Benge who lived in neighbouring Farnham Common.

There, they became a family with the arrival of Mike in 1970…and there they spent seven very happy years.  As a young father, Clive was often abroad – he was doing a lot of shopfitting work for Jaeger in Europe at that time – but Mike remembers his dad as a constant, loving (and often rather exciting!) presence in his life! 

He recalls episodes of Clive racing at speed up the Great West Road in Clive’s greatly-loved Cortina GT…at a towering 6’3”, Clive was always a real ‘man’s man’ who was never happier than when indulging in, or talking about, sport.

That said, he was also considerate and caring – honest to the nth degree and with a very strong moral code.  Immaculately dressed, right to the end of his life, he was charming company who made and kept friends to whom he was enduringly loyal and constantly supportive, going out of his way to help when he could.

He also had a strong creative streak;  as a child and young man he wrote wonderful letters and later in life he started drawing and painting…Liz describes him as very much a frustrated artist!

He always loved animals, particularly dogs…and shortly before he and Liz married, they were ‘adopted’ by a cat, called Cattinge, who lived until she was 21 years of age!  In the Farnham Royal days, Mike had a dwarf rabbit as a pet, Flops, – and he and Liz still laugh about the time that Clive once spent what seemed like hours fruitlessly trying to catch the rabbit in the back garden to put him into his hutch for the night, ending up with the rabbit attacking Clive, hanging on to his trouser leg.

While in Farnham Royal, he became a Governor at Dair House School, where he made friends with his fellow governors, many of whom became life long friends. Clive continued to be involved with rugby into his 40s…and then took up squash which he used to play every Sunday in Farnham Common with some of the friends here today. 

In 1977 the Coles moved to Gerrards Cross so that Mike would be in the catchment area for the prestigious Dr Challoner’s Grammar School.  There, as in Farnham, Clive and Liz created a home that was always full of love, fun, laughter and activity. 

As the squash buddies got older, they moved on to badminton and then to tennis.  And, as the years passed and the joints became creakier, the group took up golf, and expanded to more people…they used to call themselves the Tufties, allegedly because any ball that went into the rough was subsequently played off the nearest suitable tuft of grass!

Clive kept fit not just through his love of sport but also through walking, which he did with enthusiasm – even after his triple bypass, he was walking a mile within a week of the surgery!  Over the years, he did the Cleveland Way, some of the South Downs…and loved walking along the Thames.

He kept working with HJ Knights until the company closed and then he worked as a freelance contracts manager, before retiring fully in 2001.  By then, he and Liz were living in the house in Gables Close which remains the family home to this day.

In 2003 Mike and his soon to be wife, Celeste, moved to the United States.

Both Liz and Clive adore Celeste. They are endlessly proud of Mike and Celeste, and all that they have acheived together in New England.  Many happy holidays were spent States-side…but perhaps the most precious of all was the Christmas break of 2004 when Mike and Celeste decided to get married with just a few days notice on New Year’s Day 2005.  With just the four of them present, it was a day that Clive remembered with joy for the rest of his life. Clive was thrilled when in May of 2005 they had a Christmas themed wedding celebration back here in the UK with all their friends and family.

Four o’clock every Sunday was “Facetime time”, when Celeste and Mike would chat ‘trans-antlantically’ to Liz and Clive – and, of course, Archie…the Norfolk terrier who shared their life and their sofa!  Clive adored Archie (and Archie’s predecessor Tuppence…and even his ‘proxy pups’, Celeste and Mike’s dogs Moses and Lottie!)

Clive attained a great deal in his life…but he would always regard his biggest achievement as the important relationships in his life – his family, of course, but also the friends who meant so much to him.  He will be sadly missed by many of us.