Harry, Marjorie and Ian moved from West Drayton to 
Langley in 1976 and then moved again, within the village, in 1982. In 1992, Harry and Marjorie moved to Hazlemere near High Wycombe, following Sue, Philip and Ian who had moved there some years before. Here, they renovated their bungalow and built a double garage in their back garden to house Sue and Ian’s MGs – it’s funny but children always seem to leave their toys with their parents when they leave home!
As already mentioned, Harry had a love of cars which was rekindled when the whole family joined Wycombe Area MG Owners’ Club where they made many wonderful friends. Harry decided to purchase a 1955 MG Magnette, the registration number of which now adorns Ian’s BMW. The Magnette required a fair bit of work and, every Monday evening, Harry, Ian, Keith, Chris and quite often TJ, could be found working in the garage – fettling as it was apparently called! Unfortunately, by the time the car was finished, Harry’s health was such that he was not really able to drive the car as much as he would like as power steering had not been invented in the 1950s and it was very heavy to manoeuvre. However, Harry still enjoyed going out in it with either Ian or Philip at the wheel.
Harry and Marjorie, despite
being in their 80s, were both very up for the move to Somerset back in 2007. The family lived very happily together at The Old Smithy for nine years. Many wonderful parties were enjoyed, including those to celebrate Harry and Marjorie’s 60th and 65th wedding anniversaries. They both loved the countryside and all the wonderful friends they made in Somerset and also had the opportunity for their friends from the south-east to come and visit.
Although Harry’s health had been failing for some time, whenever he was asked how he was, his stock answer was always “fine thanks” and it wasn’t until January 2016 that events finally caught up with him when an episode resulted in him being taken into hospital, never to be able to return home.
Unfortunately, vascular dementia was diagnosed and he was placed in the excellent care of Chelston Gardens Dementia Nursing Home where he remained for three and a quarter years until we lost him in May 2019. Sue, Ian and Philip would like to place on record their heartfelt thanks to all the staff at Chelston Gardens for the love, care and attention that they gave to Harry.
