Mick White

Mick's story

Tribute – By Andy What can I say about my Dad? He came into this world on January 26th 1940, the youngest of 9 children born to Edwin and Sarah. Dad spent all of his life in the Chapel End / Hartshill area and never indicated any wish to move anywhere else, he loved the area and perhaps more importantly he loved the people of the area. He attended all of Hartshill’s Schools of the day, and upon leaving school he went to work in the family engineering business located just across the road from where we are today, that I’m sure most of you will be all too familiar with. The work was hard and physically demanding but I never once heard him complain. In 1957 whilst at a dance at Stockingford Parish hall, a young lady from Attleborough caught his eye, her name was Diane (our mum) and as he told one of his friends at the time “I like her” !! So they agreed to see each other again (even though Mum wasn’t that keen at first) and in 1961 they were married. Along came 5 children Mark, myself, Debbie, Linda and Michael. Fast forward a few years and the arrival of 9 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren seemed to re-energise Dad, his face would light up at the sight of each of these little visitors, he loved to engage with them either with stories or by dishing out his legendary cooking lessons. Away from work Dad was very keen on a number of sports he joined an air rifle shooting club at Hartshill Sports Club and loved to watch the horse-racing, snooker, cricket, football and especially his number one sporting love Aston Villa. He was also a very keen crown green bowler and the summer months usually saw him bowling somewhere or other, in addition to playing he looked after and maintained the bowling green at Hartshill Rec for a period of time. In recent years a number of illnesses slowed Dad down a little bit but his courage and determination to recover from these setbacks was something to behold, he would usually be found pottering around the garden or building some model or other, putting his feet up just wasn’t an option for him. So, I’m just going to end by saying rest easy now Dad you’ve earned it.

Remembered by Linda Walker