Harrogate D Day hero: Son's moving and very personal eulogy at funeral of Maurice Hammond

Mr Hammond said of his dad, who died aged 95 last month, "I would like to say a few words about Maurice, my dad, papa, pop and to his family in Ipswich, ‘Titch’.

“His journey from Ipswich to Glasgow to Blackpool and latterly Harrogate tells a lot about his character, his loyalty to family, courage and general good nature and his sense of fun.

"He joined the British Royal Navy at the tender age of 17, serving his country in the latter stages of World War Two, principally aboard the battleship HMS Warspite.

"He never boasted about the dangers he and his shipmates must have faced.

"He met the love of his life, my mother Mary McBride on shore leave at Rothesay.

"She must have made a serious impression on him as, on being demobbed, he turned up at my Granny Katie’s door one day to continue the courtship.

"A very brave act for a son of ‘silly Suffolk’ with a broad English accent to do.

"Glasgow had the reputation, justified at that time, as the ‘No Mean City’ so it took a bit of bottle to work in the shipyards on the Clyde.

"However, his cheery nature and his not inconsiderable skill as a footballer and, of course, my Mum Mary’s extended family helped his acclimatisation into the West of Scotland culture.

"Three children later and our annual visits to Ipswich to his Mum, Lily and his brother and many sisters showed his loyalty and continued affection for his family.

"I can say personally that our annual holidays to Ipswich for the first 15 years of my life were tremendous and showed the close-knit nature of the extended Hammond family.

"It is great to see two of his nephews, Gary and Maurice, who incidentally is also named after my dad, here to pay their respects to Titch.

"Life moved on, and Charles, myself and Jo grew up and married.

"With my mum as the major influence in everything he did, they decided to move to Blackpool and open up a boarding house - Colwyns, my mum’s dream.

"My brother Charles and his wife Jessie joined them while my sister Jo and husband James chose to move to Harrogate after spending several fun weekends with Veronica and I who had moved there earlier.

"Colwyns flourished, my dad joined British Aerospace at Warton, practically running their work canteen. As usual, everyone knew Maurice.

"So much so, that our freezer was always well stocked with delicacies as exotic as Chicken Kiev straight from the canteen larder! Typical Maurice.

"Retirement beckoned and with the boarding house now sold and my mum retired he took up taxiing under the callsign of ‘OSCAR’.

"His good friend Phil Donnelly is here today and will vouch, I am sure, once again my dad’s character, sense of fun and general good nature in what is a very stressful job in a party town like Blackpool.

"Throughout all this time, we should not forget that both my dad and mum were very good sequence dancers which kept them fit and well into their late 80s.

"The activity that brought them together all those years ago, kept them young at heart.

"All of the family could tell stories of some of their dancing escapades through the many years.

"Another classic Maurice tale which can be told in church relates to his love of golf, a game he played every week.

"Whilst Mary controlled the purse strings, Maurice collected their pension weekly.

"In those inflationary times, there was a small increase in the pension which had escaped Mary’s notice and dad skimmed the increase to fund his golf habit.

"Months later, he was finally rumbled and had to take his medicine but his ‘Del Boy’ moment lives on in our family story.

"With dad now fully retired, they decided to move to Harrogate to be near my sister.

"They enjoyed relatively good health right up to their early 90s and they made regular visits to Veronica and I in Helensburgh to sample the delights of the West Coast weather in the summer.

"Even later in life, my dad made an lasting impression on everyone he met and interacted with.

"All the qualities which had seen him through such an eventful life were still in abundance, right to the end.

"He was a good father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

"The love of his life, Mary died at the start of the pandemic. There is no doubt that he missed her presence everyday but with his joie de vivre, he was able to continue to enjoy his life.

"My sister Josephine, who shares a lot of my dad’s approach to life, supported by James Sr and Jr, his wife Sarah, Yvonne and Anne made sure to keep him busy, helping to fill the void left by my mum.

"My dad was a good man and I will miss him as we all will. He had a positive effect on everyone he came into contact with.

"He will be remembered fondly by all his family and friends as he is now reunited with the love of his life, my mum Mary."