Stuart Ham - 8th May 1945 to 9th April 2022
As you know, I am a Strawberry Line Volunteer. When our previous Boss, Chris, became ill, Stuart, already a volunteer, stepped up to become our new Boss. That was immediately before the pandemic in late 2019.
Little did I know when I met him that I was going to volunteer with an amazing man and, so sadly, for such a short time. He was one of the World's doers - involved in everything and anything. He was from a farming background and like farmers do, he had all sorts of skills - the one I often experienced and enjoyed was his skill at reversing a trailer, effortlessly into a tiny space and stopping millimeters from whatever was behind - no electronics, no cameras!
Little did I know when I met him that I was going to volunteer with an amazing man and, so sadly, for such a short time. He was one of the World's doers - involved in everything and anything. He was from a farming background and like farmers do, he had all sorts of skills - the one I often experienced and enjoyed was his skill at reversing a trailer, effortlessly into a tiny space and stopping millimeters from whatever was behind - no electronics, no cameras!
We, the Volunteers, went to a Celebration of his Life. We were dressed in our Hi-Viz. It was a gorgeous day weather-wise. The service was short (you can download the Order of Service on the right) but, with the most amazing eulogy given by Rowena, one of his daughters. How she managed it without breaking down in tears, I have no idea. Often one learns so much about a person from a eulogy but this time, there were no surprises for me - I knew most of it. Although of no interest to me, he was a (useless apparently) cricket player, but looked after the ground and built up the game in Weare and he followed rugby, as far away as New Zealand. Much more of interest to me was that he was a rally driver, specialising in Minis, he marshalled on rallies and volunteered as a marshal at Wiscombe Hill Climb in Devon. I was also interested in his farming technology. He, with a Swiss company, was involved in developing and troubleshooting an automatic pig feeding using system rudimentary hardware and software. When he quit the farm, not that he didn't work there now and again on the land and on the holiday cottages, he did airport taxi driving, volunteering at village halls and on the Award Land as well as the Strawberry Line. It was a golden age on the line, before the Health and Safety rules were tightened a few months ago. We had chain saws, built and installed benches, constructed Meryl's Meadow and loved a good bonfire. It was a sort of Last of the Summer Wine but with more useful work done amongst the banter and before a visit to The Pantry or, sometimes, The Woodborough. He was even a North Somerset Snow Warden.
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Nevertheless there are many things I regret. He and Sally came, now and again to sit in the sun in my garden and drink rather more red wine than I can manage these days. Why have I no photograph of that? I would have loved to have gone to the Wiscombe Hill Climb and, every year before winter a group of Mini-Cooper 'S' and extreme modified Minis (Including one of the twin-engine ones which were not owned by Stuart) would be driven from pub to pub around the Mendips to warm the oil before winter hibernation. How I would have loved to have done that.
I could drone on but, Stuart, I will miss you and will invite Sally to sit in the sun in my garden and drink Pablo Argentian Malbec - Stuart's favourite. It was a privilege knowing you, my friend.
I could drone on but, Stuart, I will miss you and will invite Sally to sit in the sun in my garden and drink Pablo Argentian Malbec - Stuart's favourite. It was a privilege knowing you, my friend.
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