So sad to hear of the passing of John. please accept my deepest condolences.
I first met John in 1961 at the ICI Apprenticeship Training School in Billingham as we began our training to be a Fitter, lots of fun times with myself & Peter Gales.
During this time the three of us decided to have a 2 week holiday in Lloret de Mar in Spain. We had to travel down to London to catch the flight, which included our first time on the London Underground, this was all new to us & the three of us stood on the platform waiting for the train, which duly arrived, the carriage doors slid open, myself & Pete got quickly on, but John, turning around to get his suitcase, failed to get on before the doors slid shut and the train quickly moved on! Poor John looked like a deer caught in headlights, a look of horror on his face, not even knowing what station we were traveling to, myself & Pete quickly traveled back to the first station to find a pasty white faced John sitting on a bench! Anyway we all made it aboard the next train, made it to the airport & flew off to our big adventure in Spain, via France, but that is another story.
Our first full day in Lloret de Mar we discovered the only nightclub in town was offering, for a pound each person, entertainment and as much Prosecco you could drink, turn the empty bottle upside down & it was replaced with another full one. Sounded like a great idea for three newly minted beer drinkers from Stockton, what could go wrong? The three of us, with four new best friends of the opposite sex....14 bottles later, after drinking this fizzy stuff like pints of beer, the girls were still sitting upright, no longer our new best friends, and us passed out, we were asked to leave & not return! The girls never did talk to us again either.
Anyway things did normalise somewhat after that, trying every bottle of wine or liquor on the bar shelf, walking through a plate glass door without a scratch (me).
John we will miss you!!
Jeff & Pete
Jeffrey Taylor
05/08/2026
