King, Roger

OT 882 - North

Date of Death: 31/03/2017

Taken from The Gazette No 66.

Roger was two years below me at Ottershaw, but we became close friends and both left in 1968, me with A levels and he after O levels.  I went overseas to Kenya on VSO for a year whilst Roger secured a job at the Ford dealer Moores of Weybridge, and immediately embarked on a Ford management trainee scheme.  He completed this very successfully and quickly became one of the top salesmen at Moores.  When I returned from VSO after a year, I remember being somewhat envious of the money he was earning and the nice new cars he was driving as I then started my university course.

In just a few years, Roger progressed to become a dealer principal, first at a Ford dealership in Bracknell and subsequently at various other locations and with different franchises including Peugeot, Ford and Audi. During this time he became a Freemason and was eventually awarded the Freedom of the City of London. He was the consummate salesman and manager, but the motor trade is a very volatile business that resulted in him moving from job to job with unnerving regularity and, eventually, Roger settled for less senior and hence less vulnerable positions in the motor trade, often with privately-owned second-hand car dealerships.  However, over the years I recall at least seven very favourable car deals he arranged for me at what I like to think were “mates’ rates”!

Roger was my Best Man at my wedding to Janet on a somewhat showery day in August 1974, and I am occasionally reminded by one of the bridesmaids of the hair-raising ride they endured when he drove them with typical gusto from the church to the reception in his very powerful 3-litre Ford Capri.  He couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about!

In 1973 Roger married his lovely wife Marion – known to close friends as Nim – and they had two children, Vicky and Matthew.  With our two sons, we enjoyed several caravanning holidays together, both in England and in France.  Roger suffered more than his fair share of tragedy in his family life.  Very sadly, Nim survived two battles with cancer over the years before finally succumbing to the devastating mesothelioma in 2014.  He also suffered further tragedy in his family life, losing his younger brother, Peter, in his twenties in a car accident and then his younger sister, Anne, to cancer at the age of 49.

Roger eventually retired from the precarious life in sales and management in the motor trade and took part-time driving jobs, often for car dealerships.  He was absolutely devoted to Nim and, after she died, he was deeply depressed and grieving intensely.  Having had a break from the driving jobs for some time, he was struggling to find a purpose to his life and, in this vulnerable state, fell victim to one or two unscrupulous neighbours who took advantage of him financially.

However, earlier this year he was asked to go back to the driving job at the car dealership in Reading where he had previously worked and where he had a number of friends.  This gave him a new purpose in life and he resumed work at the beginning of March.  I spoke to him, as it turned out for the last time, at the end of his first week back and he was very enthusiastic about the new job and told me he was going on a short holiday to Majorca with several of his friends from work.

I believe they arrived in Majorca on the Friday and enjoyed a nice day on the Saturday, but Roger went to bed early, saying he felt tired.  Very sadly, he never appeared for breakfast the next morning, having suffered a massive heart attack in the night.

Even more sadly, Roger had not thought to take out travel insurance and his family could not afford the cost of flying his body home, so he was cremated in Majorca, thus robbing us of the opportunity of saying a final goodbye.

My memories of Roger will always be of a dear friend, a man who was very affable and generous to a fault, but latterly a very troubled soul who depended on his few very close friends for support and reassurance.  Despite the burden of those times, we will cherish the fond memories of the many happy times our families shared together.  We miss him dearly.

Gary King  (OT 760 - North)