Malcolm Oliver
Dad was born on 21st September 1928 in Birmingham. He was an only child. He attended grammar school and joined a youth club and it was through the Youth Club that he started bell ringing as a teenager. I don’t think he ever got further than ringing the treble, or tenor at that stage.
Dad moved away from Birmingham as a young man and became a cowman, in Norfolk this was how he met my mother Mabel in around March of 1952. They married that September and subsequently went on to have 6 children, (Heather, Richard, Peter, Robert, Susan and Helen), 15 grandchildren and, so far, 5 great grandchildren.
Mum and Dad moved about a bit when they first married and Dad carried on work as a cowman and as a tractor driver.
My dad loved to tinker with things and was very good at improvising; he would lovingly and painstakingly repair clocks, taking them apart cleaning every cog and wheel. I can remember a couple of his car engines on the dining table being worked on. I think one of the funniest stories was when I was working in Thetford for a large glass-manufacturing company a gentleman came in to the factory to collect some glass. Somehow we got chatting and I told him that, before I was born, my parents lived in the same village as he does. When he asked who my parents were and I told him Mabel and Malcolm Oliver, he immediately said: “I remember your dad when he worked for my dad and drove the tractor on the farm and how he used to make the tractor go an awful lot faster and would race around the fields in it.” In those days mum and dad also used to spend a lot of time with a motorbike and sidecar.
We used to holiday on the Norfolk Broads and that was where my dad bought his boat Curlew, a small clinker-built boat that dad spent a lot of time working on. He built a cabin on her and replaced several planks over the years. He had a great love for sailing and spent many of his weekends at Pin Mill, always taking one or more of us with him for a sailor just to help him work on the boat.
Dad then went on to become a lorry driver which took him away from home a lot. He left lorry driving in approximately 1977 to 1978 and went to work in Felixstowe as a transport manager, travelling every day to work from our home in St Paul’s Road, Colchester.
This was followed in the early 1980s by dad being unemployed for the only time in his life; this only lasted for about 3 months.
He then went to work for British Rail. He started working as a carriage maintenance person, fixing brakes on the carriages and the like, but he suffered very badly from dermatitis. The railway ‘powers that be’ did not want to lose my dad, so they sent him back to school to become a freight guard. It through this move that he met Dennis Went who brought him back to the family of bell ringers; a family that embraced my father, myself and my mother, even though my mother never rang a bell.
He went on to become a very popular well-liked bellringer. He rang approx 14 peals of which the majority were at the Norman Tower in Bury St Edmunds. He also became a key helper in the maintenance and re-hanging of many bells over the years, making several great friends such as the late Dickie Furminger, the late Bernard Fairhead and the late Harry Millett.
He really enjoyed organising and going on many holidays for bell ringers.
When my father was an active bellringer he would be out most nights that work allowed. Monday would be Little Horkesley, Tuesday would be Wormingford, Wednesday would be Shrub End, Thursday would be St Peter’s in Colchester and Friday would be wherever we could find that was ringing on that night. My dad’s words to me in those last few weeks were “good days, good times”.
In the 90s Dad then became attached to the East Anglian Transport Museum in Carlton Colville, where he went back to his engine days rebuilding some of the vehicles including a Thornycroft truck. He spent many happy years there, staying in mum and dad’s caravan for days at a time, helping out and spending some evenings in the Jazz Club.
In my dad’s last few weeks he and I we talking about ringing and we went through every one of his diaries and other records. One of the things we talked about was what my dad called his “only claim to fame” where the Author Ronnie Blythe whom dad had driven to Mersea had mentioned dad in his subsequent book “A Parish Year Word from Wormingford”.
To sum my dad up he wasa gentle, kind, loving and caring man. As father he was strict but fair and held his family values very high. As a friend he was loyal and respectful. Perhaps the best description of my dad has been among the many cards my mum has received in which they say he was a “true character” and a gentleman. I think my words would be: “You always knew my dad was in the room; he had a presence about him.”
Helen Lewis
I would just like to add to Helen’s tribute that Malcolm was the District Master of the North East Essex Association from 1991 until 1993. He rang his first peal at Wormingford, Essex on February 25th 1984, covering to a peal of Stedman Doubles. The band: James A Smith, 2nd Barry Gibbons, 3rd Bernard Fairhead, 4th Chris Lamb, 5th Paul Bray, Tenor Malcolm Oliver. Conducted by James A. Smith.
His funeral service was held at St Peter’s Church, Colchester on 12th April. The church was full of family, friends and ringers. The bells were rung half-muffled before and afterwards.
I shall always remember Malcolm for all the trips he arranged for us ringers to Norfolk and Somerset; they were planned to the finest detail – where to park and have lunch. Mabel and the family used to go to Somerset a week before to find the best place to park the coach – that’s dedication!
He was a very proud man after his peal and had peal cards printed.
Thanks, Malcolm, for some lasting memories.
Barry Gibbons
