Friday, 2 February 2007

The day of the funeral

Everything went very well. Mum was very pleased to see so many old friends: academics, librarians, local historians, archivists, neighbours, past neighbours and of course family. We were even joined by a professional glamour model and a Russian baron. About 65 attended and a similar number sent their best wishes including school friends from the 1930s, war comrades from the 1940s and professional colleagues from later years. All remembered Dad with great affection.

The coffin was drapped in the flag of the Royal Navy. We walked in to the chapel to the strains of Moonlight Serenade and the officiant (ghastly word) spoke to the text that Mum and I had prepared. We had worked in two of Dad’s favourite quotes:

Provided that one’s words and actions are guided by truth, sincerity, kindliness, hospitality and selflessess, the question of religion, faith or form of worship is immaterial. - E O Lorimer

My life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have hold of only for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. – George Bernard Shaw

These weren’t abstract quotations: these quotes really represent how Dad lived every day of his life.

The highlight of the ceremony was my brother Bill’s reading of Henry Reed’s excellent poem The Naming of the Parts:

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.

The coffin disappeared to the Fleet Air Arm anthem Wings over the Navy and we left the chapel to the sound of Monty Python’s Always look on the Bright Side of Life.

And then on to a very English sort of “wake”.