The Royal Green Jackets Association
must have served with John Sparks and I could have asked him what John was like. We couldn’t hear anything that happened inside save at one point we heard clapping which I guessed later was for a tribute by John’s daughter Leonie. The singing of ‘Morning has Broken’ also drifted out to us.
I enjoyed talking to some of the others including a woman who had come over from Benidorm especially. The man next to me lived in Doncaster but knew a lot about the locality. He said that in the Thatcher era Houghton Main was often mentioned on TV and the radio during the coal strike. That probably explained the number of short sturdy men at the funeral.
David decided he needed a sit down in the café so we went down together and were enjoying some excellent coffee when a throng of mourners passed by following the hearse to the cemetery which was on the outskirts of the village. Colin Cranswick who was in the front carrying a standard later said that it was a mile away. David was unable to walk any sort of distance so instead we followed some of the stragglers across the road into the Houghton Arms where the reception was to be held. It was lucky that we did because when the crowd returned from the cemetery, they formed a queue at the bar stretching out of the back door. Unfortunately, because we were inside, we failed to hear the bugle calls over the village.
David needed to get home so we departed before the buffet was opened. Colin and the bugler still hadn’t been served when we took our leave. I couldn’t help noticing that most of the men at nearby tables had two or three pints lined up in front of them, Australian style.
Stuart Anderson Hon-Sec.
HAPPINESS IS “PERMISSION TO CHECK THE BELT” IN THE NEW
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