Delwiche, Anthony

(OT 339 - East)

Date of Death: 19/01/2020

The text below has been extracted from a eulogy delivered by Anthony’s eldest son Alex - (Malcolm Alison OTT 742, 17/02/20)

Anthony William Robert Norman Delwiche, often called Tony by many, was born on the 16th September 1941 to Louis and Molly, in York where his father had been posted for the war.

Anthony’s early life was unsettled and unconventional, as he, his younger sister Marion and his mother followed his father around from job to job. Despite his father being an inventive genius, he never quite managed to make his fortune though.

Anthony was very proud to be the grandson of Antoine Delwiche, who was a valiant World War One Belgian veteran. As a result of being injured during that war, Antoine met and came to marry a British nurse, Jenni Godson. Anthony’s grandfather was affectionately known as PAPA and his grandmother GAGA, and she spoilt Anthony rotten.  Anthony’s grandparents eventually settled in Purley, Surrey and they had a big influence on his upbringing.

When Anthony was 9, he became ill with Tuberculous and was hospitalised for 2 years. This had a huge negative impact on his education. He also blamed this period to be a reason for his problems of final illness, although this was never proven.

When he recovered, his grandparents paid for him to go to Ottershaw. He had very mixed memories of the experience, but was glad of the education and the influence of a visionary headmaster. He met and went on to stay in touch with a number of friends from there and in later years took the responsibility of secretary for the Old Boys Association with gusto.

He and Michael Bywaters (OT343),who he met at Ottershaw stayed in touch and often holidayed together including sailing holidays for many years after their school days; this later led to Anthony owning a sailing dinghy which was towed to Devon for holidays, although in later years the boat sat unused on the family front lawn.

At 16, he decided he needed to make a living and spent a year in Fleet Street working for a printers. He then spent several years working for a number of electronic firms and studied at Croydon Tech, whilst living between his parents in Caterham and grandparents in Purley.

His upbringing meant he became staunchly independent and he wanted to have better control of his income, rather than relying on others. Ever the entrepreneur, he hung around the Croydon auction houses, buying job lots to sell on with varying levels of success. His cousin, Ann quotes, “he had this hair colour, which he insisted I tried, turning my hair from Ash blonde to Tulip Black and trying out different scents which were varying degrees of awful!”.

When their grandmother died, he moved in with his aunt and cousins in Woodside Road, also in Purley. He became more like a brother to Anne and Philip and during Philip’s school holidays got up to all sorts of mischief. At that time, their Papa also followed his passion and bought and raced pigeons, having never been allowed when his wife was alive. He would take his grandchildren out to the middle of nowhere, release the pigeons then race them back home to see who got back the quickest. The pigeons nearly always won, but it was during this time that some very dubious driving lessons apparently took place. Anthony kept a cup that his grandfather received winning a pigeon race in 1966.

Whilst living in Woodside Road, he took Anne on her very first driving lesson in a red Bubble Car up Copse Hill. He failed to tell her that she should press the brake pedal gently, so when he said “brake” – they both nearly ended up through the windscreen. That was the end of the driving lessons!

With a bit of help from his grandfather he started buying and selling cars and used to spend many an evening at the car auctions, looking for cars of varying quality and conditionto do up and flog. Some of the nicer cars he got through included Rolls Royce’s, Morgan’s, Jaguars,an Alvis convertible, an MGB, and an MG TD to name only a few.

Occasionally his cousin Philip, who hadn’t passed his driving test, sometimes helped by driving back some of the motors whilst being told by Anthony- "stay close and we'll be fine” (thankfully they were).  During this time a gentleman called Crawford Gilmore mentored Anthony in those early days; they remained good friends for many years afterwards. Later in the 80’s, Anthony promised to do up Crawford’s old Triumph Herald convertible. Alex remembers driving back from Brighton with this being towed by a brown 1.6L Ford Cortina on a car trailer. The old Ford almost didn’t make it up the A23 struggling in 1st gear going up some of those steep hills. However, the Herald was very rotten and was left on the front lawn in various states of repair, much to the dismay of his wife and the neighbours.

Back to 1967, something very important happened; he met a girl. According to Philip, “one day Anthony, his uncle and Philip were at the bottom of the slope in front of their garage, (he thinks going through some of the aforementioned dodgy knock offs), when a girl, who lived across the road in the corner house, walked past their house on her way to Purley town. Upon seeing her, Tony completely lost his train of thought and after a second or two he said "I'll be back in 10 minutes”, walked up the slope, got into his MGB and drove down the street after her. Apparently, the smile on his face when he returned confirmed it was the best impulsive decision he ever made! That girl was Kathy, and they married just three months later in November 1967,shortly buying a bungalow in Godstone in 1969.

Alexander was born in 1970 after his heavily pregnant mum had to endure a hideous journey to Redhill General in the MG TD. Robin followed, in 1973 and Paul in1979. He was extremely proud of his boys, their wives Claire and Shannon, and his grandsons, Louis, James and Charlie. Sadly, he will miss another little one, arriving next week(!), from Robin and his lovely wife Shannon.

In 1973 with the slump in the economy, Anthony took a‘horrible’ insurance job in Caterham. He hated it but stuck at it for 13 years to make ends meet.

In the early 80’s Anthony and Kathy sold the bungalow and all briefly lived between various family homes, Godstone farm and also “house sat” for many of Godstone’s finest neighbours when they went on holidays. Anthony and Kathy tried to buy a nursing home business to run, but fate was against this plan and the family finally moved to the other side of Godstone.

A few years later, he left the insurance job and tried a few new ventures and finally got his electrical certification and began working for himself. Something he enjoyed; once he understood what not to take on.

When Kathy retired from full time nursing about 15 years ago, he was thrilled and excited and although he never liked flying (after a really bad flight in 1976 when he and Kathy flew to see family in Canada,), they started to travel together, notably on an “around the world” trip when they re-visited Canada, and travelled through USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and the Cook islands, which he loved and treasured.

As a family they would also visit Belgium where they have an extended Delwiche family and remained in touch with many of the Delwiche’s or Delwishe’s, and Kathy and Anthony continued to frequently travel to Belgium. Likewise, the family keep in touch with descendants of the Godson’s, Anthony’s beloved grandmother’s family.

Anthony was a passionate eco warrior, and from an early age he loved all animals, especially the newts in his pond, and, of course, cats. He was concerned over plastic use, long before Attenborough brought it to global attention, and was a member of Greenpeace and such like, until they also became “big corporate money grabbing organisations”.

Despite often appearing to be a “grumpy old man” he always tried to find humour to amuse himself and spread good cheer as he went; you’ll understand with the music as you leave this afternoon (‘Nut Rocker’ by B. Bumble and the Stingers & ‘The Purple People Eater’ by Sheb Wooley)

“Dad, you will always be in our hearts. You will be missed by not only family but also by the many friends you have made while living and working in the community”. “Rest in peace Dad”

Those who would like to make a donation in memory of Anthony please make cheques payable to ‘PDSA’ and send to ‘Stoneman Funeral Service, 45-47 High Street, Godstone, Surrey RH9 8LS.
If you prefer send cheques to the charity of your choice.