John Townsend 1926 - 2010
John (Leonard to his family) Townsend was born on 5th May 1926 at Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire to John (Jack) and Annie Townsend. With his two brothers, the family lived in Higham until John was two, when they moved to Ibstone, Buckinghamshire and then to Turweston where he lived until he left home at the age of 14.
John often recalled that when in Ibstone the family lived quite frugally, with his father regularly catching rabbits to help supplement their diet. There was also a weekly bath in a tub by the fire, with all five sharing the water, his father having the last bath.
The whole family attended church every Sunday, where John’s mother played the organ. At Ibstone, John was recruited as organ pumper for his mother, who frequently implored him to ‘pump faster boy’ when the organ began to go flat due to lack of wind!
At 14, through a family friend, John went to work at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire as a House Master and assistant teacher of Woodwork and Design. He stayed here until 1943 when, at the age of 17 he, very uncharacteristically, told a fib about his age and joined the RAF.
On being demobbed at the end of the war, he went to live in Wolverhampton where he married a local girl, did two years of teacher training and taught woodwork and design at Old Swinford Hospital School. The marriage brought one child, Jenny, who still lives near Wolverhampton.
John’s days in the RAF had given him an immense love of flying and during the Korean War he was called back to the Service, spending a number of years training on Vampires. Later, a career move took him to the Inner London Education Authority Youth Service, where he was responsible for overseeing numerous Youth clubs in the East End of London. As well as arranging activities within the clubs, John took children on many outdoor activities – sailing on the Norfolk Broads, trekking on horse back in Wales, mountain climbing in Wales (he climbed Snowdon and Cader Idris endless times) and camping and skiing in Austria.
In about 1990, John was appointed the Deputy Principal Youth Office with ILEA and worked at County Hall in London until his early retirement in 1985. It was during this period that Johnny met Mary Townsend, a teacher from Perth, Western Australia, who lived in the same apartment complex. Still a keen aviator, John was a member of a flying club at Stableford Aerodrome and would regularly hire a plane to fly over Essex and Kent. John used the prospect of one of these flights as the ultimate chat-up line by asking Mary one Saturday if “she’d like to go flying with him?”
John and Mary were married in London in February 1983, after which Mary took Johnny home to Perth to meet the family. On their return to the UK Johnny decided he would take early retirement and in 1985 they moved to Perth and set up home at 4a Loch Street Nedlands, a beautiful early twentieth century house, which they set about restoring and enlarging, once again John using his carpentry skills to very great effect.
Despite the fact that many of John’s family – grandfather, father and uncles – were bell ringers in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire in the early to mid 1900s, John didn’t learn to ring until after a visit back to the UK in 1987.
John and Mary happened to go and watch the ringers at Orton and were transfixed by the art. When they got back to Perth, Mary decided she would go St George’s Cathedral and learn to ring, but John wasn’t so sure and it was only at the last minute before setting out for the first training session that John said, “I might as well come along and see what happens.” And so began the couple’s fascination with ringing.
When the beautiful little six were installed at Christ Church, Claremont (John and Mary’s parish church) in 1989, John was appointed the first Tower Captain and continued in that role until Mary took over in the late 90s. John loved his ringing, particularly liking ringing for Sunday service and for weddings. He also spent a number of years giving demonstrations at The Bell Tower and was a regular at St George’s Cathedral from 1987 until about 2006.
Never a particularly ambitious ringer in terms of methods, he was however a very accurate striker and demanded the same from the rest of the band. John’s great forte, not unsurprisingly given his educational background, was in teaching youngsters to ring and he and Mary spent countless hours teaching ringing to over 200 students at St Hilda’s Anglican Girls School from 1996 to 2003. One of the last times I rang with John was when he came along a couple of months ago to help the latest batch of St Hilda’s students ring for a chapel service for the first time.
In addition to ringing, gardening and woodwork, John loved reading. He had a particular interest in World Wars I and II, but also enjoyed histories and biographies. John was never happier than when sitting in the sun or by the fire with his cat and a book. From his first visit, John became passionate about Australia, with he and Mary spending many happy holidays exploring this vast country in ‘Horace’ the battered Holden Rodeo, which Johnny loved and Mary hated! Johnny always reckoned that, following a visit back to the UK every two or three years to see family and friends, the best day of the trip was the day he returned to Loch Street! He did, however, love the English countryside.
Sadly, John did not experience the best of health during his last couple years, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago, the treatment for which knocked the stuffing out of a man whose level of activity had consistently belied his octogenarian status. More recently a tumour in his bladder confined Johnny to hospital, with his last few days spent in great pain, which he bore with characteristic courage and fortitude. Even during this last period however John did not lose his sense of humour, commenting, “I only came in here for a check-up and look what they’ve done to me!”
John Townsend was one of nature’s true gentlemen and his passing has left a huge hole in our lives here in Perth.
No more will we have Johnny’s RAF punctuality, or him busily trying to lock up Christ Church, Claremont and turn out all the lights half an hour before our weekly ringing practice is due to end (usually much to Mary’s annoyance!). Gone is the man who quietly, and with no fuss, put up the roadside notices proclaiming the special services to be held at Claremont and did a million and one other little jobs, totally un-noticed, around the church. We have also lost a meticulous teacher of bell control, a metronomic tenor ringer and a very skilled and attentive steeple-keeper.
What remains however are very fond memories of a lovely man whose company, I, and everyone whose lives he touched, enjoyed immensely. We also have the beautiful timber belfry furniture he lovingly crafted for every ringing chamber in Perth – every time I stand on one of the boxes at the Bell Tower I now think of Johnny. Fitting memorials to a man who made a huge impression on us all.
Richard Offen
