John Pidgeon (OB 1941 - 1954)

John William Green Pidgeon was born on the 5th of July 1935, in Bristol, the first child and son of Harold Edgar Pidgeon, a mechanical engineer, and Truda (nee Green), a County Commissioner for the Girl Guides, and descendant of the wealthy Green Suffolk milling family. His Grandpa Walter Arthur Green owned a string of mills in Essex and Suffolk as well as a flotilla of sea-going barges. These were used, both at the Dunkirk evacuation and to off-load grain from Canadian supply ships, anchored in the North Sea, for processing in the flour mills. He was offered a baronetcy in recognition of his war-time work, but sadly died before he could take it up. We still have his old shotgun in its smart case, with the initials WAG embossed on the top. Tragically his son died young from an infection caused by tasting the wheat grains, otherwise John and presumably all of us would have been East Anglian millers! 

Shortly after the Bristol blitz in 1940 during which his sister Caroline had been born, the family moved back to Essex, to be closer to the Greens, and John’s father Harold continued to be involved in designing and building many of the weird and wonderful contraptions which Winston Chuchill envisaged for the Raid on Dieppe and D Day, but from then on in and around London. Post war he was involved in dismantling German V2 rocket sites. 

His Sister Caroline, who was 6 years younger has sadly and unexpectedly recently died also, as previously mentioned, so this has been a particularly heavy double blow for the Pidgeon and Hayward families. Both of them were some of the last remaining members of a hardworking, frugal wartime generation who could remember what it was like to be bombed. 

John attended Brentwood school, which produced such famous alumni as Robin Day, Jack Straw, and Noel Edmunds, and where he excelled in swimming and at athletics, particularly sprinting, although he never managed to crack the 22 second barrier for the 220 yards! He was a near contemporary of his heroes, the famous middle distance runners Roger Bannister, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway amongst others, who went on to break the 4 minute mile, and compete so successfully in the Helsinki Olympic games of 1952. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Scouts, which lead to lots of hillwalking, including in the Alps. 

John was also an able student who went on to study Dentistry at the London Hospital (now the Royal London Hospital) just down the road from Shenfield, in London’s East End, with his future wife, our Mother Pauline Rosemary who was studying Radiography there. Apparently John used to carry Pauline’s books to school on his bicycle! 

After his course, he won a position to carry out a research project on board the good ship John Biscoe, a forerunner of the David Attenborough Antarctic research ship, popularly name Boaty McBoatface by the British public. He set sail in the Southern hemisphere Summer of 1959, and the ship picked up supplies of beef on the way from Argentina, and also stopped off in the Falklands and South Georgia, still a fully functioning whaling station in those days before reaching the Antarctic, where I believe they also collected some penguins to take back for London zoo. His task was to find out why so many of the British scientists and researchers of the Antarctic Survey contracted tooth ache during service in their remote cabins, which was a serious painful and difficult to treat condition in those circumstances and in those days. The simple conclusion was that no-one had checked them in the UK before they left, so proper procedures were put in place. 

Almost 20 years later, in 1997, the year of the Queen’s silver jubilee, he became ship’s dentist for the old aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal, and found all the sailor’s teeth to be absolutely excellent, and massively better than they would have been 20 years previously. This was due to thorough checking before they went off on a 2 year round the world cruise, and also due to the introduction of floridisation into drinking water in the late 1960s. So some things in the modern world have improved. 

Post qualifying as a dentist from the London Hospital in about 1958, and his trip down to the Antarctic, where he had incidentally grown a beard, John was still required to do National Service, which had been in place when he went to University. He kept his trademark beard, and joined the Royal Navy, and both remained for a full career! 

On the 21st of May 1960, John was married to his childhood sweetheart Pauline, our Mother in their local village Shenfield church, as he had just arrived back from Antarctica, the local newspaper ran the headline ‘Polar molar man returns home to wed!’  

He was posted up to the RN dockyard and base of Rosyth, just North of and across the River Forth from Edinburgh. Rosemary (nee Thomas) did not fancy the alliterative name of Pauline Pidgeon, and so adopted her second Christian name of Rosemary for the rest of her life, which is how most of you will have known her.  It was from Rosyth in December of 1961 that my Mother made the long train journey down to London to give birth to me at her Alma Mater hospital, the London, making me a Cockney by birth as I was born under the sound of Bow Bells! 

Not too long after this they were posted to Singapore, in what was to be a wonderful career touring the far flung outposts of the old British Empire before they all closed down, and in March of 1963, Clive was born, giving him the ability to choose either Singaporean OR British nationality until the age of 21. I suspect he often wonders whether he made the right choice?! 

Bizarrely, John’s senior boss in Singapore was a certain Captain Inverdale, father of the rugby and tennis TV commentator John, and Rosemary would always remind us of that when he appeared on the TV.  

In 1964/5 John  was posted to the former Fleet air arm, now RAF station in Brawdy, Pembrokeshire in South Wales, and Clive and I went to Primary school in Haverfordwest, and Hugh was born in May of 1967. Life in Wales, was full of memories of cliff top walks, sandy, if oil slick strewn beaches, and more hillwalking. It was here that John and Rosemary began to develop a lifelong interest in antiques, particularly furniture, silver and crystal, and John pursued an interest in shooting and fishing. 

Soon we were posted off again, this time to Malta, and filing into our brand new grey Ford Cortina Estate which had replaced our smaller old Ford Anglia, we drove across Europe and the Alps, down Italy, across to Sicily, and finally over to Malta. 

Malta was a blissful location which filled us all with a taste for and love of all things Mediterranean. John got into sub aqua, and we enjoyed many weekend boat trips in Royal Naval launches and picnics, which involved water ski-ing, lots of swimming and bbq lunches, washed down with endless bottles of Bubble up, Tango and Coke. These Sunday banyans, as they were called were always preceded by a church service where the Naval hymn ‘For those in peril on the sea’ was the conclusion, and which hymn we will be singing today. 

For the second half of our time in Malta we lived in a splendid house in Birkirkara, belonging to the Baroness Inguanies, which seemed like a Palace at the time. We had what seemed like a 100m yard long grape vine colonnade, from which Clive and I picked bunches of grapes and sold them outside the front door of the house to passing cars for 6d per bunch. By the end of our sales campaign we had amassed enough sixpences to buy ourselves a dinky car each, mine being a lime green and white Lambougini as I recall! We also had a tree house in a large Mulberry tree, and went to a lovely Naval primary school called Verdahla, whose house names were Nelson, Drake, Raleigh and St Vincent signified by different coloured belts! John was promoted from Surgeon Lieutenant Commander to Surgeon Commander during this time, and also formed life long friendships with Jerry and Jill Gardner and two very senior Sister Nurse Cynthia and Marion. 

John also took up bagpipe playing in Malta, tutored by a venerable WW2 veteran Pipe Major from the HLI called Dan Bonar. I joined him in this, and coincidentally his next posting in 1970 was to Scotland, and the Clyde submarine base in Faslane, near Helensburgh where we lived. Clive and I went to a prep school called Hurst Grange in Stirling, and Hugh going to Park Lodge, a local Primary school. The piping continued, and I joined John in the holidays practicing with the HMS Neptune pipe band, where we used to pipe in and out the Navy’s nuclear submarines HMSs Renown, Repulse, Revenge and Resolution. Scotland, rather like Wales before involved much hillwalking and John’s renewal country pursuits. 

In 1972, he was posted to Hong Kong, and HMS Tamar on the harbour, and living in a block of flats called Victoria Heights, half way up to the Peak of Hong Kong island on Stubbs Road. Clive and I continued our boarding schooling in Scotland, and used to fly out to HK for the holidays, where many more banyans were enjoyed in the Summer, and John developed his sub aqua diving to another level, culminating in an RN expedition to New Zealand, a country he returned from totally enthused with. John also volunteered with the St John’s Ambulance brigade to treat poor villagers and even a leper colony on some of the then rural islands around Hong Kong. On one occasion whilst extracting teeth, copious amounts of blood were produced, causing Clive who was onlooking to faint. Clive later obviously went on to become a dentist himself!  

In October of 1973 Vivien was born, and Clive and I were notified of this event with the frugal Telegram of two words ‘baby sister’. In 1974 we returned to the UK, this time to England, Somerset, and HMS Heron at Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm base. 

Initially we lived in married quarters in an old military barracks called Houndstone Camp on the edge of Yeovil, but a year or so later John and Rosemary bought a house called Green Acres at the end of Hayes End in South Petherton which was to become their home village for the rest of their lives. Clive and I, and later Hugh, went to school at Kings College Taunton, and Vivien later to Sherborne Girls School. Green Acres was possessed of a large, long, narrow garden with a full orchard at the end, so John was able to get stuck in to his old gardening skills, the fruits and vegetables of which were enjoyed by all. We boys became sons of the Somerset soil, working in the school holidays for Gilbert Vaux, East Lambrooke fruit and vegetable farms, Mole Valley Farmers and the like. 

Vivien now took up the mantle of setting up a stall at the front gate, largely selling black currents, damsons, cherry plums and runner beans, whilst John invested in an apple press and made gallons of juice/cider, so much so that two of his grandchildren actually called him Grandpa Juice!  

He was also able to renew his hobby of DIY on the house, and some furniture and antique collecting, and trips to Lawrences Auctioneers in Crewkerne were a regular fixture. He further developed his dexterous dental skills into silversmith work and the casting and painting of ceramics, and was able to renew the pursuit of his old University hobby of Campanology or bell ringing, mostly practiced at this very church. In the year of the Millenium, he and some of the other ringers generously had cast and donated a new bell to the church. I’m afraid the ringers were otherwise a fairly irreligious lot, and upon finishing ringing, used to descend from the tower and then in full view of the congregation walk out of the side door of the church and follow the 92 year old Bert Pierce off to the local pub! 

Once his tour of duty at Yeovilton was complete, John joined HMS Ark Royal for the Queens Silver Jubilee Spithead review in 1977 and subsequent world tour as previously mentioned, and Rosemary was able to join him in Jacksonville in Florida, and explore a little of the USA. Both returned very enthused with such delights as McDonalds, not yet present in the UK, Dunkin Donuts, and other such American food outlets. 

From then on until his retirement John had a number of further shore postings largely dotted around the West Country from Poole to Portland, Plymouth, Lympstone and RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, where we were able to take advantage of the excellent gym and sports facilities and see plays at the beautiful Minnack theatre on the Cornish cliffs. Sadly a number of his dental nurses in Poole, with husbands in the SBS, were widowed during the Falklands War in 1982. John was promoted to Surgeon Captain during this time. 

John used to weekly commute from these jobs, back to the garden, DIY and bellringing in South Petherton every weekend, and it was during this time, that Rosemary acquired a pedigree German Pointer called Anna, who she sadly never quite managed to train. 

On one eventful occasion, the snowy weather meant John was unable to undertake the long drive back to work on Monday morning. So that none of his patients missed their appointments a helicopter was dispatched from Yeovilton to fly him to Cornwall, with much excitement it landed in the field behind Green Acres to collect him, and also to return him on Friday night!  

John retired from the Navy in 1992, and ever the hard worker, took on a couple of jobs in civilian practice locally, until his eyesight could no longer cope with detailed dental work, so he retired fully to his garden, DIY, bellringing, antiques and saving money! Over the course of time, Green Acres was extended by local craftsmen, using high quality Hamstone reclaimed from the Safeways Bus Station in the middle of the village. The timbers were also reclaimed, these from a Scottish Distillery making the cutting of these a pleasant experience! This made an even more comfortable home, and with school fees now behind them, he and Rosemary began to travel further, particularly to Asia and on cruises, to enjoy the fruits of their hard earned labours. 

Sadly, our Mother Rosemary died from cancer at the tragically early age of 74, in 2010, and I well remember standing in this very spot at around the same time of the year, delivery her eulogy too. John renewed a friendship with Polly who he had known from Malta days and the two were good companions for many years. 

John had 4 children, 9 grandchildren, most of whom are here today and 2 great grandchildren so far, though we obviously hope for many more!   He was very proud of them all, one doctor, two continuing his line of dentistry, one Physiotherapist, one Management Consultant, one Chemical Engineer, one Cambridge Undergraduate and two still at school at King’s Taunton and Millfield.  The great grandchildren have inherited his love of gardening at a very young age, liking digging up potatoes as much as anything else. 

John carried on living in Green Acres until 2017, having had the of the bottom half of his garden bought by housing developers who had increasingly been building on the surrounding fields. He moved just down the road, and closer to the centre of the village, to Hayes End Manor, the former home of the Willy family whom we knew, with a smaller house, more proximate friends, and central management, and retained an allotment for his vegetables, and a greenhouse for his tomatoes. John lived successfully her for 9 years before ill health with two different forms of cancer, which both later metastasised forced him to move further down the road again into Burnworthy nursing home earlier this year. Here he remained for about three months, in a reasonably comfortable, pain free state, with faculties, eyesight and hearing reasonably intact, though increasingly thin due to his cancers, and died peacefully in his sleep on the 1st of August, having recently celebrated his 91st birthday, and knowing that one of his Granddaughters had just been married, and another one was about to be. It was a shame he could not attend either of these weddings. 

So 91 years of a life well lived, and an Essex boy done good?! John was clever, hardworking, sporty, active, well travelled, had a famously short and fiery temper, and had many interests. These focussed on Gardening, DIY, Bellringing and saving money! He was a great contributor to village life, and became a much loved and respected son of the Somerset soil to which we will shortly return him, next to Rosemary in a plot in the cemetery at the end of Hayes End and overlooking the garden at his beloved Green Acres.