Tim, who died as a result of a tragic accident whilst working on his car at home on Sunday 3rd May, was born in Southsea on 4th February 1951, when his father was curate at St Matthew’s Church Portsmouth. The family moved up country to Cowley and Didcot in Oxfordshire before coming to St Neots in January 1965.

Tim first met Catherina in the late 1960s when she attended confirmation classes. At that time Tim was away working on his uncle’s farm in Yorkshire and they saw very little of each other until he returned home to attend firstly Moulton Agricultural College in Northampton, and then Shuttleworth College of Agriculture in Old Warden, Beds. They started going out together after his 21st birthday party at The Vicarage.

After completing his course, Tim worked for a while at The Institute of Animal Physiology at Babraham, Cambridge, looking after pigs for Professor Roy Calne who was conducting early experiments in liver transplants on these animals. This aroused a life long interest in organ transplantation. He returned to his uncle’s farm in North Yorkshire, and he and Catherina spent many happy weekends together while she was still at college, with the delightful aroma of pig slurry.

Tim and Catherina were married in St Neots Parish Church in 1974 by Tim’s father, Stanley, with a wonderful reception in the Vicarage garden in spite of the rain.

Tim had decided that he wanted to start married life in this area with all their friends and he soon got a job at Boxworth Experimental Husbandry Farm, working on feeding trials and milk yields and enjoyed describing his job as "an experimental husband". Tim never realised how much he had enjoyed working with cattle until the dairy unit closed in the 1980s and with it went his job. These had been happy days with their young family and the children would often all go with him to help feed. Everything had to be meticulously weighed and Tim was a stickler for that and aimed for perfection in tasks where for most of us a reasonable estimate would do.

A short spell in a ministry office in Huntingdon, which he absolutely hated, eased the transition from cattle to crops, when he started another job within the Ministry of Agriculture, in the Soil Science Dept in Cambridge, working on trials with wheat yields. He would arrive home bringing a variety of interesting odours depending what they had been spreading on the fields. This job took him all over East Anglia and he passed his HGV licence in order to drive a lorry carrying the combine, often arriving home at midnight during harvest time. One late night return resulted in the Council moving the lamp post outside his house from the kerb edge back against the privet hedge.

In 1994 he took a voluntary redundancy, and spent a year using his HGV licence and other talents until he took up a piano tuning course at Newark Polytechnic. Tim was not a pianist but loved music, particularly organ music and was delighted to get a part time job, to eek out the piano tuning income whilst building up the business, as an organ tuner’s assistant for Harrison & Harrison of Durham. He loved to go to visit the organs of cathedrals such as Lichfield, Peterborough, Lincoln, Ely, St Alban’s Abbey and the lovely colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. His love for organ music was inspired by his Uncle Frank (Dr Francis Jackson) who was his idol. Whenever he and Catherina went to visit him in York, they would arrive just before Evensong at the Minster and Tim would wait for the words" Would you like to come up to the organ loft with me?" and would try to restrain from shouting out "What a silly question!"

Tim had also helped out as temporary caretaker at three schools when the need occurred. He had been a school governor at St Marys Church School for 17 years while he was churchwarden and had been on the governing body at Priory Park Infants from 1999 to the present day.

As a close friend said - Tim was very unconventional. When Catherina first met him he always wore a jacket and tie even to work on the farm. However he gradually changed and for the last 20 years rarely wore a suit.

You couldn’t tell Tim what to do – only drop hints or suggest and then he would make up his own mind. Tim was a person who saw a need and learnt a skill to do it. When his old Morris Minor 1000 developed too many holes to pass the MOT Tim went to welding classes, turned the car on its side and then drove it for many years afterwards. Having decided that they needed a garage, Tim duly enrolled in bricklaying classes but unfortunately it was cancelled due to poor response so he had to resort to professional help.

Tim’s interest in mechanical things started at an early age, according to his father, when he and a friend filled the local policeman’s car tank up with water to see if it would go. Car maintenance became a necessity with an old vehicle and Tim and Stephen Gill would spend Sunday afternoons desperately trying to get it on the road for Monday morning. It always seemed to be raining too.

Tim enjoyed motorbikes too, beginning with a Honda 50, and then rebuilding a BSA 650. Using the latter for work proved to be too expensive and Catherina often had to drive out and pick him up when it broke down. He was delighted when his father gave him his Norton and sidecar, and both he and Catherina enjoyed several summer evenings riding along like the Two Fat Ladies to Catherina’s dance venues.

If someone was enthusiastic about their hobby, Tim shared that enthusiasm. During his early days on the farm in Yorkshire he met a lovely old watchmaker and spent many happy hours watching him working and thus watch and clock mending became a lifetime hobby. He even taught the skill to others at evening classes at Newmarket after doing a teaching course. The family home is full of clocks in various states of repair. He also looked after St Neots church clock. He became involved with the automatic winding systems for turret clocks and enjoyed days out with his friends at Dorcas Engineering repairing or installing new systems.

He was keen to learn from others and over the years took up picture framing, stained glass work, photography and woodwork. He also went to evening classes to learn calligraphy and jewellery making. On a visit to Newquay Pearls, in Cornwall, he watched for ages as people paid to fish for a shell and gazed in wonder as the shell opened to reveal a perfect pearl. He decided to have a go and his opened to reveal not 1 but 2 pearls. "Earrings" he said and made them for Catherina.

Tim was passionate about recycling and re-using old material and made several bookcases from old lab benches, and 2 stair cases. He built things to last. He once read a book called "The Autonomous House" and spent the last 30 years trying to achieve this, long before the advent of Grand Designs. He enjoyed hot water for most of the year thanks to solar panels but unfortunately his attempt at installing a wind generator was thwarted by the local planning department.

Because of all his interests, his pockets were always full of useful bits and pieces – nails, screws, washers, bolts. He was always on the lookout for different tools. Returning from a trip to Australia he shocked the security staff in Sydney Airport, when the router in his hand luggage appeared to look like a gun on the scanner!

He was not a keen flower gardener, but for many years enjoyed tending a vegetable patch. His experimental background led him to graft different varieties of apples onto existing root stock in the garden and he grew tomatoes from seed that he collected. Having to water the garden during dry spells led to the setting up of a "Tim" watering system which catches everyone by surprise when it suddenly comes on.

Tim’s main love of course was his ringing which he took up on arrival at St Neots in 1965 – a hobby which all the family subsequently shared. Tim was elected Bells Adviser to the Ely Diocesan Association of Church Bellringers and was also President of the Huntingdon District. He was my deputy tower captain and steeplekeeper here in St Neots, in charge of the flag and cared for the clock, organising the recent regilding of the dials.

His first peal was Plain Bob Minor 22nd April 1967 at Litlington, Cambridgeshire; this was also my first as conductor.

He rang just over 300 peals, including 5 for ASCY, having been elected to the Society on 14th July 1992. His election was notable in that his son, Thomas, was elected on the same day. I don’t know whether this is a unique achievement, but undoubtedly is one that both father and son remained immensely fond of. He enjoyed his membership of the Society, particularly when it came to the annual dinner which gave him an opportunity to combine a Society event with a family reunion. He said to me only last year that he hoped one day to have an entire Griffiths table at the dinner.

Peal highlights include a peal on the back 6 at St Neots; family peals, especially the joint Griffiths and Harvey peal; and the ASCY peal of Orion at Reading where he was drafted in at the last minute to ring the treble. His son, Tom, remembers that his Dad was spot on all the way through, which was even more impressive considering how little 12 bell ringing he did. Finally on peals, Tim had an ambition to ring St Neots’ tenor 25 times before he gave it up. Sadly, he was just 2 short.

He was Churchwarden at St.Neots church from 1980-1995, a longstanding member of the PCC, a Lay Eucharistic Minister, and Sunday School Teacher. He was very keen on Church Unity and had been Chairman of Churches Together in St Neots on 2 occasions. He had been a member of the Deanery and Diocesan Synod for many years. He was chairman of the St Neots Christian Aid Committee, something that he was passionate about and hence the donations at the funeral were given to the work of this charity. He supported many of Christian Aid’s big campaigns – for Fair Trade products to be sold in local shops (which happened) and many others.

He was a member of the Men’s Group of this church, and also the local Methodist Men’s Forum. A chance discussion, led to him joining the St Neots Town Initiative Transport Group. He was president of St Neots Handbell Ringers since their formation 30 years ago. He was a keen supporter of Heartsease Folk Dance Group and enjoyed the social life as long as he didn’t have to dance!

What really characterised Tim, quite simply, is that he was always there – to ring, to teach, to encourage or to fix – and it is in these respects that we will remember the magnitude of his contribution to everything he was involved in. He was devoted to his family, friends, the Church and God. It was a fitting tribute to him that St Neots Church was packed for his Requiem Eucharist it is estimated that 570 attended. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

George Bonham

I acknowledge the considerable help that I received from Catherina in compiling the above tribute to Tim and from Andrew Keech who gave a tribute at the ASCY meeting – G.E.B.