John Wilson - Eulogy
Thank you all for coming. It’s never easy saying goodbye to someone you loved, especially when it is someone as incredible as John.
John was born in Bristol on the 25th of October, 1934. At the time, his family was living in a 4th floor apartment near Clifton Suspension Bridge. Being on the 4th floor and without a garden, John’s dad built a “cage” to hang out the window so he could get fresh air. A very safe contraption I’m sure for a young boy and no surprise that John had crazy ideas such as this his whole life.
He and his younger brother, Hugh, were evacuated to America with many other children on one of three boats, The Ark Royal, in 1940. Both the boat sailing before and the boat sailing after were sunk. How lucky are we that John and Hugh survived. The boys lived with two different families in Ohio for the duration of the time they lived in America, however they returned to their family in England in 1945 and lived in a rural thatched cottage, called Greystokes, in Ferndown, Dorset. Here, John had his beloved pet cow, Tessa, her calf Peanut, and a pig called Fergie.
As a young adult, John served with the military police in Japan and Korea—he was seconded to look after Field Marshal Sir John Harding, who he drove from South Korea into North Korea, and whilst in Korea, he also cared for a young girl and her brother who had lost both their parents. This is only the beginning of the many generous and selfless things John did in his lifetime.
He returned from war to his family who had moved to their last home, Longacres, in Dudsbury Avenue. It was here that he met Ann. At the time, Ann was walking her horses along the road and John was creosoting the fence—shirtless as Ann always likes to tell everyone. The rest is history! They were married for 67 years and their best friends, Janet and Sheldon, always say they were joined at the hip. Life was one amazing, long adventure.
John and Ann got married in HamPreston and moved to Newport just after Sally was born where he worked in the family business, called Marsh and Wilson, alongside his Dad. Ian and Fiona were born at their home in Stowe Park Avenue. After 2 or 3 more moves the family ended up in Broughton where they had a house full of teenagers. Once the kids had all grown up, they chose to sell their business and travel around the world sailing, and after 30 years returned to their home in Casarabonela in the Adalucian mountains.
I know we could all talk about John for hours and all of the incredible things he did throughout his life. He cycled to Paris with Uncle Hugh, owned a coffee machine business with grandma, and had a love for sports cars, to name but a few. But when people think of John, the main things that come to mind are sailing, music and dancing, shenanigans, and of course, kindness and generosity.
John began sailing with his dad on a boat called Almora in Poole Harbour and around Old Harry Rocks which sparked traditions for John and his own family. He and Ann would pick the kids up each Friday afternoon in the summer to drive 3 hours down to Poole. The five of them would go across Poole Harbour in the dark on the dinghy and spend the weekend on the water, and then every Sunday night they would drive home listening to the Top 40 while eating fish and chips for supper in the car. From a Wayfarer to their cruising yacht Salifi—named after Sally, Ian, and Fiona—he and Ann sailed the world working and making memories such as anchoring under the Statue of Liberty in New York and watching turtles lay their eggs on a beach in Trinidad. Through the canals of Holland, the turquoise waters of the Carribean, and experiencing the highest tides in the world in the Bay of Fundy, Northern Canada, sailing was his love, and there is no doubt that John belonged on the sea.
We all know John loved his music and dancing. He and Ann were always the first ones on the dance floor and the last ones to leave. From The Mamas and Papas to The Beatles, John always had an eclectic taste in music. Beginning with blasting Dire Straits in the morning to wake them up, the kids all say their love for music comes from John. Fiona remembers that if ever a party was slow to get started, John and Ann would put Gloria Gaynor on the record player and start dancing to Honeybee until everyone else couldn’t help but join them.
John was a troublemaker and you could always trace chaos back to him. He encouraged the eating of mass amounts of ice cream (clearly where Ian gets it from), accidentally dragged Jake up a hill behind a VW Beetle, started a snowball fight after a wedding, and even told the police Ian wasn’t his son just to make a bit of fun when they showed up on the doorstep with him one night. John was like a big kid—young and active of mind—always joined in and wanted the house to be full of teenagers. He was the one to start being rambunctious, one example of many being when he decided to set up an obstacle course for bikes after a party and fell into the concrete pond in the yard and broke his thumb, ending up in the emergency room at 2 am. He led the charge in doing stupid things and taught his kids how to be idiots. You can’t forget him teaching the kids to build their own bikes and having a demolition derby in the yard.
Finally, John was kind and generous to a fault. He gave everything away and committed his life to doing things for others. He gave people confidence when they were going through tough times, and though he was far from normal, he was a rock for others. Amongst many comments about John, someone remembered, “Your home always spilled out happiness, openness and recognition that anyone could be themself whatever shape that took. In my young eyes you tore up the book and just lived as a family should without conventional restrictions.” This is the perfect way to describe the family John and Ann built together—wonderful, accepting, freeing.
John was a dreamer, a romantic, a legend, a maverick. Anyone and everyone who knew him would tell you he had a keen sense of adventure and was such fun to be around. People aspire to explore as much as John and Ann did—they have shown us a greater appreciation for life and motivated us to live with spirit. John was all about living on the edge of life, it makes sense why his favorite movies were James Bond and the Italian Job!
There are countless memories of John, and he will forever influence our lives and inspire us to make the most of life, and be selfless. We will take him with us wherever we go, and remember how incredible his time with us was. He was extraordinary, thoughtful, and dedicated everything to others, and we can only hope to have a life as meaningful as he did.