By Appointment to
H.M. Queen.
Manufacturers of
Kitchen & Bathroom
Taps and Mixers.
Barber Wilsons & Co Ltd
John Alford Wilson
1929-2009
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The funeral to celebrate the life of John Wilson was held at St Peters, St Pauls, Ordnance Road, Enfield, London on the 21st January at 2pm.
He was committed at Enfield Crematorium by members of his family afterwards.
Eulogy by Simon Wilson
Who was John?
John was Husband to Suzanne.
John was father to me and my sister Lynne.
John was Grandfather to Katy, Helen and Henry
John was Great-grandfather to Paul, Per, Johannes and Romy.
John was the 3rd generation head of Barber Wilsons.
John was a golfer.
John loved and was devoted to us all.
John had a long and happy life and I am very pleased, or should I say lucky, that I was able to share the last 15 years with him in the running of our family business. Few sons get the opportunity to spend so much time with their father, so I am very grateful that we were able to spend time together doing what we both loved, making taps.
John had many interests in life, but outside of work, his over-riding passion was for golf. He practiced diligently, and managed to play in single figures for many years. He organised so much in the golfing world for the OC golfing society, the Cruisers Golfing society and his favourite the Hackers. I always liked that name as it somehow epitomises the game for all but a few. His love of golf was such that I had difficulty in getting into his office when he and Sue were working on the various events. He even roped me in to print the Cruisers members booklet, a task that Sue continues to this day. Perhaps John’s finest golfing moments were firstly shooting a Hole-In-One at Woburn, the 12th hole of 181 yards on the 20th July 1989. A feat that earned him VIP membership of the Smirnoff Hole-In-One club. His second was his drive-in as Captain of Cruise Hill GC where he not only sported a rather dashing pair of plus-fours, he got me to deliver him to the 1st tee on the back of my motorcycle. Actually I am sure there are many more that I don’t know about.
John loved music of all styles from Bach’s Organ works through to some of my music, although not all of it by any means. Today we came in to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor which is a piece of music that is very special to him and Suzanne. At lunchtime in the office John would listen to Classic FM. Whenever Bach’s Toccata and Fugue came on, everything would stop, up went the volume and he would sit back and close his eyes and lose himself in the music. However, his over-riding musical love was for Jazz. Chicago, New Orleans, the swing era, even some of the more modern styles. It was his pop music and he just couldn’t get enough of it. A passion which he shared with his cousin David.
John really enjoyed cars, the bigger the engine the better. I guess he got this from his uncle Oscar who always had nice cars and John would be tasked with keeping them just so. A task he did enjoy, especially as he could justify a test drive, just to make sure everything was working as it should. In my childhood, I remember he loved his red MG ‘A’ and drove it quite furiously at times much to my enjoyment. In later years John was seduced by Jaguar, no doubt influenced by his friends experiences and so a string of Jaguars followed over the years. I think his favourite car of all was the British Racing Green XJS that had a V12 6 litre engine. Goodness but did that car go, the clock went backwards when he floored the accelerator and the petrol gauge moved quicker than the speedometer. I am sure John was determined to do his bit to ensure global warming was a reality.
John loved work, actually I believe he looked on Barber Wilsons more as a hobby than anything else. Of course it paid the bills, but he really enjoyed coming to work. He loved brass and taps. A fountain of knowledge and widely acknowledged in the trade as the man who knew his bib from his stop. He worked in all areas of the business, even as a labourer in the foundry, and there are still tools in use in the factory that he made as a young man learning his trade. It is a tribute to his knowledge and resourcefulness that Barber Wilsons not only continues today, over a hundred years from its inception, but he also achieved his ultimate goal of becoming the first Royal Warrant Grantee in the industry, The Queen’s tap maker. John was not ready to retire and even though he knew that his days of coming into the office regularly were over, he was still keen to do as much as possible to help me in my new role as the head of the company. Every day I go to work I miss him. No cheery “Morning Si” or at lunchtime “you want some nosh”, no more putting practice in the showroom. John’s essence is woven throughout the fabric of the business and at times it certainly makes it hard for me to focus on the job in hand. I am heartened to speak with the many customers and suppliers to Barber Wilsons who have expressed their sadness at John’s passing. They all said he was such a gentleman and such a nice person to do business with. He is a hard act to follow.
So who was John?
A Gentleman
That is John.