John Vickerman OH 1953-1959
Tuesday 09 April 2024
The club has been informed of the death of John who passed away in his sleep.The funeral will be held on Thursday 2nd May 2024, St. Thomas's Church, St Thomas’s Square, Salisbury, SP1 1BA at 1.45pm, followed by a reception at The Red Lion Hotel, Milford Street, Salisbury, SP1 2ANJohn Vickerman – TributeIt’s heartwarming to see so many of you here today to celebrate Dad’s life. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this day with us. He would be thrilled and reach for his binoculars to see such large numbers of Kingfishers in one room! To summarise someone’s life in a few words is daunting and almost certainly impossible, Dad always managed to give a good speech, despite his nerves, so in his honour we shall try to do our best today.Dad was very sociable, and you’ll all have memories of him, all differing, no doubt sharing some common themes. Dad led a rich, fulfilled life. Even in the last 9 years, whilst hugely impacted by memory loss, confusion and speech difficulties, he worked so hard to articulate himself and get involved. As we pay tribute today, we hope you’ll all learn something new about Dad and perhaps memories will be jogged, and these can be shared later. Dad was a war time baby; born on 6th August 1942 he was the second son to Olive and Roger. Along with his older brother Frank, he completed their family. He was raised in a small village called Wellington near Hereford. Dad’s father, Roger, had a small holding with an apple orchard and was a keen poultry farmer. This upbringing nurtured Dad’s enthusiasm for the natural world.Whilst ill, as a young boy, his older brother Frank gave Dad cigarette cards with birds on them, this sparked Dad’s lifelong passion for birds - the feathered variety! We found some of Dad’s diaries whilst clearing out the family attic 9 years ago, some dated back to the late 1940s, when he was just a young boy. They showed that he was already taking daily notes of the weather conditions and the birds he’d seen that day. This attention to detail and report writing was something he’d continue throughout his life. Many evenings were spent in his study at his desk recording the ‘spots’ of the day from his numerous birdwatching outings. His articles and depth of knowledge on the subject would be shared amongst his birdwatching groups. I’m sure some of you will also have been recipients of his annual Christmas letters which had the same level of care and attention poured into them each year.Alongside his love of the natural world, Dad was a very keen participant in racket sports especially tennis and squash in his younger years. Dad attended Hereford Cathedral School and then went on to study at Pershore Institute of Horticulture. For the first 5 years of his working life, he worked in horticulture and market gardening throughout the Hereford and Evesham area.For someone who didn’t have a particularly sweet tooth his next job choice does seem a little bit out of character. Over the next decade Dad went on to work in sales for Cadbury’s. He was very successful in this role, no doubt his great articulation and attention to detail put him in a strong position. Plus, he didn’t consume all the profits! During this role he had the amazing opportunity to represent sales for Cadbury’s on a secondment to South Africa. Shortly before departing, he met his future wife Jane, Mum, at a dance in Southampton. After completing her nurses training Mum followed Dad to South Africa and soon after her arrival Dad proposed to Mum, this was inevitably a bit nerve wracking, and it resulted with Dad collapsing and requiring stitches to his head. But Mum still said ‘Yes’!They married on 10th October 1970 here in St. Thomas’ Church and bought a small house in Greatly, near Reading. They were blessed with a son, Simon, born in April 1974. Another home move shorty followed to Moxham’s Close in Fordingbridge. Two years later they were further blessed with a daughter, me! In 1983 we moved to Mill Road in Salisbury into Mum’s old childhood home. Like all good marriages Dad soon knew his place and although a dab hand at tinkering with ‘recyclables’ to solve a few household storage issues, Mum swiftly learnt that when it came to decorating, the cheque book had to come out.Mill Road, situated opposite the Elizabeth Gardens, the Harnham Water meadows and overlooking the Cathedral, was a perfect setting. However, Dad was perturbed by the heavy lorries using Mill Road as a cut through, this sparked a little neighbourhood campaign that he got his teeth into; he was a man with strong principles! When Dad left Cadbury’s, he started a new sales role for Slimma, a women’s fashion clothing label, covering the South East of England. When his work travels took him away to the Isle of Wight I’ll always remember him bringing us back peppermint sticks of rock. He continued working for Slimma for 17 years. He had large estate cars, most memorably the Volvos, which carried his clothing samples to his customers. The cars also doubled-up to provide transport for family outings and numerous, memorable birthday parties with all our friends sitting in the boot heading off to an exciting destination. The trusted Volvos also ferried us all abroad for our annual summer holiday camping trips along the west coast of France. Dad was in his element prepping the Volvo for our annual French pilgrimage, painting the headlamps yellow - tick, applying the black tape for headlight adjustment - tick, picking up the odd continental speeding ticket - tick, reversing with caravan back up major highways - tick. But we always got there, and the best memories were made! One place we couldn’t get to that easily by car was South Africa, Dad made a great deal of friends in South Africa whilst working with Cadburys and planned a 5-week family trip to revisit over Christmas 1987. We traversed South Africa by wheels and wings, stopping at various safari parks, beach resorts, national sites and BBQ’d with friends along the way. Then onto Mauritius for a week of R&R. Dad’s philosophy was, ‘to have nice things is nice but the experience and memories of travel are so much better!’Dad left Slimma in 1992 and after much consideration, he set up his own business ‘New Forest Bird Watching Tours’. With his trusted white minibus, he’d take people off around the UK on birdwatching holidays. He wound up New Forest Bird Watching Tours a few years later and did various jobs to bolster retirement income including book sales and some school taxi work.Having retired, Dad stepped up his voluntary conservation work, notably on Harnham Water Meadows including traditional hedge laying and bird nest counting survey work. He sat on various birdwatching committees and continued to organise and participate in many bird watching outings with clubs. He was never happier than when layering on all his old jumpers, waterproofs and loading up his lunchbox, flask, telescope and binoculars, into the car, or minibus, and setting off! Mum and Dad were very keen on traveling around the UK and abroad and a big highlight on Mum and Dad’s social calendar was the annual Oxford nurses’ reunion, meeting up with lots of Mum's nursing college friends and partners. Dad was always very supportive and encouraging to his family and very welcoming to our spouses, Chris and Kim and our wider family members. He was a very proud grandfather to Simon’s four children Roan, Rex, Rose and Alma and my three children Ewan, Isaac and Zara. Having enjoyed several years of retirement together Mum suddenly faced a long battle with cancer. Dad provided incredible support and cared for Mum at home until sadly, in February 2011 she passed away. Dad wrote and presented a superb tribute to Mum at her funeral here at St. Thomas’s Church. Adjusting to life without Mum was inevitably tough but he kept busy with all his hobbies and very occasionally, with a bit of encouragement, tried his hand at cooking. Though for convenience, Wiltshire Farm Foods was his preferred meal choice, they most definitely would have seen an upturn in profits. He continued to travel internationally and enjoyed a major trip to Australia and Singapore where he visited Samantha and family. Totally out of the blue in 2015 life took a dramatic turn for Dad when he suffered a brain haemorrhage. During the last 9 years Dad received care from some amazing individuals. He charmed the carers with his personality and formed close friendships with them. We’re thankful for some of those carers being here today, he did keep them on their toes though. On one occasion, not long after his haemorrhage, when he was more physically able, he scaled the fence out of one care home, almost certainly to get out and about into nature, probably on a quest to find a bird! He still had that adventurous spirit!Albeit becoming frailer, his recent time spent at Ashley Grange care home found him generally relaxed, content and still participating in the entertainment until his final day.We’ve received lots of lovely messages of condolence, and they all follow a similar trend citing Dad’s kindness, patience and thoughtfulness. His thorough knowledge of birds and nature which he had a passion to teach and share with others. And let us not forget his quick wit, cheeky sense of humour and his love of cheese and crackers.Samantha, John's daughter