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Kenneth Albert Reynolds.
(16-Feb-28 to 01-Feb-06). A summary of his life Ken was born on Sunday the 16 February 1928, at 35A Station Road, Cheslyn Hay, the first born of four children to Albert John Reynolds and Mary Evelyn Groucott. He had one other brother and two sisters. One of his earliest memories was of being sent up to the shop in Cheshlyn Hay, on the day war broke out to get some tape for the windows. He often said that the War was far from being an exciting time, was one of hardship and worry, and quite often having to go bed with an empty stomach in a leaky Anderson shelter. The feeling at the time was that we will be lucky to win the war. He remembered working as an errand boy for a local butcher, seeing how his more well of customers would get the best cuts, and the old lady down the road got the "scrag ends", as he described them. Seeing this had a formulating influence on his character, and he always fought against injustice, wherever he could. Later, he worked for a while obtaining the breakfast and lunches for a gang manual workers, who rewarded him very well. He then worked as a part time lorry driver for a coal yard based at Cannock. He joined the army (Territorial) on Wednesday the 24 June 1942 at Worcester. His army number was s/14144002. His height was given as 5ft 8 1/2 inches and weight 125 lbs. He was stationed at Nottingham and lived at private digs at 30 Ropewalk, Nottingham. He was next posted to Grantham, and lived at Oysant Road, Grantham When he was interviewed they asked if he could drive, he said he could, the recruiting sergeant then advised him to keep quite about that as they prefer recruits who have no prior experience, as they do not like trying to undo bad habits. On his training, they said "Are you sure you haven't driven before?". Ken kept quite about it. He was trained to drive any sort of vehicle from a tank to a motorbike. He ended up as a chauffeur. After leaving the army he worked driving on coaches, and at night, as the head barman at a hotel in Aldridge. He then worked on the buses at Walsall, firstly as a conductor, then a driver, when they went driver only. During his time on the buses he became head of the Union and fought very hard for the working man. Many a battle with the management, but he was always willing to compromise. After his retirement he again used his skills of leadership to head a social club at a local pub, which provided days out for it's members, and social activities. Over the years his interests and hobbies included; collecting metal toy soldiers (when he was a child), a large collection of 78 records, amateur radio successfully passing his exams to become G1MIZ. Always liked to be one step ahead. I remember him buying the latest Stereo and so on... He was very keen on computers, starting with a Sharp onto the Commodore 64 and 128. Once the IBM PC came about he had a top of the range model. He was well into software and even used to get copies of beta software posted to him by Adobe, for him to appraise. Whatever he did, he did with passion. So he taped music from the radio, until eventually becoming bored, he moved onto something else. Very little illness during his life, and in his later years, had the lucky habit of always looking 10 years younger than he actually was. A man of Titanic willpower, with a great sense of humour and a great loss to all who knew him. There will be more revisions and additions to the above, in the forthcoming months. I Miss him. |
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