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terry

LV Shipping
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
23
In answer to those of you that wanted a copy of the eulogy that I gave for Harry at his funeral, here it is.

Harry's Eulogy

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Terry and Malcolm had worked for me for the past seven years.

During that time, I grew to know him very well both as a friend as well as a colleague, and so it is with great sadness that I stand in front of you today, not just to mourn his passing, but to celebrate his life.

Malcolm’s life has been taken away from us far too soon and it is obviously hard to understand why tragic things like this happen to such good people.

However, this is a question without an answer and we shouldn’t dwell on the loss of our dear friend, nephew & cousin.

Instead let’s celebrate his life and remember all of the things that Malcolm accomplished, the important things in his life and the joy and love he brought to everyone around him.

Firstly, I’d like to point out that Malcolm was only known as Harry to most of his friends, and I guess there are some that didn't even know he was a Malcolm.

He acquired this nickname in the late 60’s, believe it or not after the infamous Harry Roberts that killed three policemen in what became known as the Shepherds Bush murders. Fortunately the surname was the only similarity between them!

Anyway, as I have only ever known him as Malcolm I will keep referring to him as such if it’s OK with all his friends here.

Malcolm was born in Southend on the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] of July 1952, and lived there with his mum Gladys until she remarried to Bob (Malcolm’s stepdad – although to Malcolm he was always Dad) and moved to Thundersley where he attended school.

When he was 10, Malcolm’s granddad took him to Roots Hall for the first time, which was on a Monday evening and the Shrimpers beat Reading 2-0 with goals from Mike Beesley and Derek Woodley.

This was the beginning of Malcolm’s lifelong love affair with Southend United.

He went to his first away game when he 13, at Brighton where the Shrimpers got beat 9-1, but he never let this put him off.

At 16, Malcolm and his mates were allowed to go to away games for the first time without accompanying adults, starting at Bournemouth and a memorable 6-1 win for Southend.

Throughout the years since, with both highs and lows for the club, Malcolm’s loyalty and love for the Shrimpers never faltered.

Even during the 90’s when he was living and working in Hull, Malcolm still managed to get back at weekends for the home games.

In his earlier years, Malcolm was a typical lairy North Bank Boy, vocally supporting his club and looking out for his mates.

His dislike of the inbreds from Colchester was legendary, as was his dislike for Neil Warnock and Harry Redknapp.

Over the years he watched from all parts of the ground, until he switched from the West Bank to his current season ticket seat at East Stand Black about 8 years ago.

Through supporting Southend over the past 50 years, Malcolm made many, many friends, as can be seen by the many Shrimpers here today.

In Malcolm’s spare time away from Southend United, he carved out a successful career in freight forwarding and shipping, working for many well known companies within the industry.

From working in Leadenhall street in the early 70’s, then Barking, – Hull in the 90’s as I mentioned earlier, Malcolm built a reputation for efficiency and dedication to his job, coupled with a vast spread of knowledge for all disciplines in the industry.

Eventually Malcolm found his way to LV Shipping in Tilbury where he worked for me from 2005 until his sad passing last month.

Over the past seven years, I found Malcolm to be hard working, reliable, very knowledgeable, quick to offer help and advice to our more junior staff, and prepared to do what was necessary to get the job done.

Malcolm was generally calm and laid back in his approach to work, although occasionally he’d explode and give someone on the other end of the phone a major tongue lashing.

His pet hate was Indian call centres, and none of us in the office dared interrupt him when he was in full flow.

On the personal side, Malcolm was extremely well liked at work and had the ability to keep us all smiling with his jokes and one-liners.

Malcolm used to make us laugh whenever we had a fire drill or false fire alarm. Despite his size and bad knees, he always used to be down the stairs and out of the building before any of us even had the chance to stand up! We even joked about getting him an inflatable escape chute so he could make it out even quicker!

I’ll share another funny story about Malcolm with you. On Fridays, we have a dress down day where staff can wear more casual clothes including jeans.

One Friday I was away from the office on business when I got a call from my assistant manager to say they had a problem in the office relating to a pungent smell that seemed to emanate from Malcolm’s feet.

Of course they wanted me to speak with Malcolm about it because none of them had the courage to speak with him directly!

On the Monday back in work, there didn't seem to be a problem, so I thought nothing else about it. Until Friday.

As soon as Malcolm came into the office, I noticed that he was wearing an old tatty pair of trainers that looked as if they had probably been worn by Bobby Moore in his heyday, and then this awful smell followed him in.

Everybody else in the office turned their heads towards me with that silent look!

So I asked Malcolm to pop outside the office with me for a quick chat, which we did from time to time anyway.

I said to Malcolm, “look mate, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just come out with it. Your feet <bleeping> stink. It’s making everyone in the office queasy. It’s obviously your trainers because it only happens on a Friday”.

In his usual style, Malcolm was completely laid back and unfazed, and just said;

“Sorry mate, I found these old trainers at home which were always my most comfortable pair, and I've obviously not realised that they’re wafting. Don’t worry, I won’t wear them to the office again”.

So I thanked him for his understanding, and as we were heading back to the office, I said to him;

“Look mate, they do stink, so would you mind taking them off and leaving them outside the office door?” - to which Malcolm happily obliged and sat at his desk wearing just his socks.

Big Mistake.

For the rest of the day, the smell was twice as bad as it had been when Malcolm was wearing the trainers!

Despite getting very pointed looks from the other staff, I never had the heart to tell Malcolm to put his trainers back on, and he eventually left just as happy as when he’d arrived in the morning, seemingly oblivious to the green faces around him!

It certainly taught me a lesson to think about the potential consequences before taking action!

As most of you know Malcolm’s sports knowledge was second to none, and I used to look forward to our morning chats about whatever sporting event had taken place the weekend or night before, whether it was football, cricket, golf or even one his recent favourites – womens beach volleyball. It’s something I’m desperately missing.

Away from football, Malcolm was an ardent cricket fan, fervently supporting the Essex County Cricket team, as well as the England team of course. He often said that cricket was his favourite sport.

The truth was that Malcolm loved all sport, and his sports knowledge was almost unparalleled. I was always amazed at the facts and figures that came effortlessly to him that any one of us would have struggled even searching for answers on google.

A couple of years ago, Malcolm and some friends from the Shrimper Zone appeared on the TV quiz show Eggheads, where Malcolm was the only one to beat one of the Eggheads which was Judith Keppel. Typically the subject was sport, and Malcolm even amazed his own teammates with some of his correct answers.

Malcolm achieved one of his life’s ambitions earlier in the year when he spent three or four days at the London Olympics, watching a variety of different sports (including women's beach volleyball).

I remember him saying at the time that the Olympics would not come back to the UK in his lifetime, so he had to take the only opportunity he’d ever have and attend.

Malcolm had quite a small family with no brothers and sisters, and he was extremely close to his mum Gladys.
His dad Bob passed away in 1998, and shortly after Malcolm moved to Canvey to be near his mum and help look after her. Malcolm’s mum Gladys sadly passed away about 5 years ago, which left a big hole in Malcolm’s life.

Malcolm never married, and although he had girlfriends in the past, I understand that he was always worried that if he lived with a partner, she would stop him spending so much time watching and attending the sports he loved – and that’s the reason why he preferred to live on his own.

Malcolm was also very close to his uncle Ernie, and they would regularly meet for a pint and a pie in the Last Post in Southend, where they would have a good chinwag and put the world to rights.

Ernie would always say that when he became Prime Minister, things would change! Malcolm’s response was always a wry smile before he went to bar to order another round!

About 15 years ago, Malcolm took his mum Gladys to Australia to visit his uncle and cousins in Adelaide. Whilst there, he was able to visit the Adelaide Oval to watch England play Australia. Malcolm talked about this trip often and always wanted to revisit one day, although this sadly was not to be.

Malcolm was an avid reader with a large collection of books. Prized among them were his Wisdens Cricket Almanacs that he used to get every year, and no doubt this is where his amazing knowledge of cricketing facts and figures came from.

In recent years, Malcolm spent a lot of time online with his friends at the Shrimper Zone web forum, where he met with old friends as well making new ones, chatting about everything from football, sports, politics and current affairs.

He was a much loved and very well respected member of the Shrimper Zone community, which was painfully evident by the outpourings of disbelief and grief that spread on the site in the days following Malcolm’s passing.

In fact his Shrimper Zone friends have kindly organised the wake to be held at the Far Post this afternoon.

It’s terribly sad that Malcolm’s life ended so soon and I can’t put into words how much I will miss him, and I know all of you here today feel the same.

Malcolm was a positive and happy person and surely wouldn't want us to be sad today.

I know that if he were here, he would tell us to cheer up, smile and remember all of the great memories we all shared.
Even though Malcolm…Harry… may be gone, his memory will live on in all of us forever.

Rest in Peace Malc.
 
Fantastic tribute Terry. Moving but very interesting too. Well done because it can't have been easy at all.

RIP Harry
 
Thanks Terry, it's making me well up a bit and I'm at work! RIP H, miss you mate.
 
I thought it was a lovely tribute to Harry, and the way Terry told it was even more poignant.

Well done Terry
 
Brilliant eulogy Terry. Was great to meet you also afterwards. Make sure you come and see the Blues again, i'm sure we can change your football allegliances!:smile:
 
Somewhat of a strange question, but this was asked at Harrys wake, and no-one there at the time knew the answer.
On the day of Harrys 'passing on' it was announced that this occurred on his way to work.
Was this on the bus to Benfleet station, on his train journey, or elsewhere?.
 
It happened at Benfleet Station - not sure whether it was on the platform or not.
 
Only just got round to reading this. It was beautifully delivered at the time and I enjoyed revisiting it. As I said last Friday Terry, you'll always be warmly welcomed if you ever get bored of watching the European champions and fancy popping along to Roots Hall.
 
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