Ted & Jean Janes

Obituary by Ted's grandson.

My Grandad, Ted, was a remarkable man in many ways.    Firstly he was a family man - a husband, father, father-in-law, big brother, grandparent, great-grandparent and friend to many.  He was also an incredibly committed man who achieved so much for his community with huge amounts of drive, energy and fun, side by side with his beloved wife Jean.   Everyone will have their own special personal memories of him.  I will do my best to try and sum up his life, achievements and why he meant so much to so many.

   

As Billy mentioned earlier Grandad was the eldest of 4 children, brought up in rural Speen in the 1930s.    His father was a chair maker working in the furniture factories in & around High Wycombe and also a keen gardener, providing fruit & veg for the family.    Grandad learnt from his father and developed a passion for gardening that stayed with him throughout his life.     During his teenage years Grandad used to help out his Uncle Wal who used to play records at the local village dances.   He would cycle miles to the local village halls carrying the box of records on his bike to and from these dances.

Like many of his generation he left school early with no qualifications and started work on the factory floor of a light engineering firm in High Wycombe, Ernest Turner – cycling to and from work to home in Speen.   Other than a break during the war he worked there for 23 years.   My mum recently found a letter written in 1963 after he had left which described him as……‘reliable, conscientious, uses his own initiative and has acquired the respect of his fellow workers'....…  I think that is a good summation of Grandad throughout his subsequent working life as a Co-op Store Manager and then Co-op Insurance Agent.

 

At the onset of the war and aged 18, Grandad left Speen to become a Bevin Boy in Derbyshire.  This was life changing for him in more ways than one.   It is where he met, courted and fell in love with Jean who became his life partner for 75 years.   It is also where he formed a lot of his principles that he held dear and true to throughout his life.   Seeing the conditions the miners worked in and speaking with the miners about workers’ rights, led to him becoming a life-long Labour supporter and activist.

Ted and Jean married and had a daughter, Carol, when my Grandad was 20.   They lived with Jean’s mum for a couple of years and then moved down South to live with Grandad’s family.  The young family initially lived in a tiny caravan and then a one up one down house in Speen, before moving to the bungalow in Lacey Green where they have remained for the next 70 years.   In addition to working at Turner’s my Grandad took on a second job as a gardener to make ends meet.

 

You would think the young couple raising a child and working all hours to support themselves would have little time to do anything else.  Incredibly they found the time and motivation to do so much for their local community – always with huge amounts of energy and fun.   It’s impossible not to marvel at what this formidable team achieved.   Grandad took on several civic roles and Granny was the committed partner, working side by side to support Grandad. The list of achievements is truly inspirational – there are simply too many to mention them all….a few examples are:

34 years on the Parish council, 27 of them as Chairman.  When appointed to the council he was one of the youngest councillors in the country.

Launched and ran the village youth club

Founded, edited and produced Hallmark, the village magazine for 22 years.  

Helped organise the Twinning Association in the village with Hambye in France

Initiated and organized many village societies and events, including the Strawberry Tea, Happy Wanderers Walking Club and Village Day

Chairman of the Wycombe Labour Party

Magistrate for 24 years

I think of all the many political, civic and community achievements the last one makes me most proud.    It was very rare for a working man with little formal education to become a magistrate, let alone to have risen to become Chair of the Aylesbury Bench. In 1990, having served with distinction for 24 years he resigned.  At the time, the government had introduced a controversial new form of taxation, the Community Charge, more commonly known as the Poll Tax.   As a magistrate Grandad would have been obligated to sit in judgement on people unable to pay this tax. He was not prepared to do this.   Quoted in the newspapers at the time he said….

"It is with huge regret that I am resigning but I have no wish to assist in enforcement of this tax…..this tax is so unjust departing from the adopted essence of British Taxation, that is, the ability to pay….in my mind it is immoral" His resignation generated a lot of interest and Grandad was invited to be interviewed on television, but typical of the man he declined.   This was not about him…..this was about what was fair and just. The poll tax was abolished by the government in 1991, in part due to the stand taken by principled people like my grandad.

I really don’t know how he did it, but he still found energy for the family.   Of course, there was an impact on his time and he relied on Granny so much to be the main parent.   Some of the roles they took on were centred on the family – the youth club, for example, was something they ran because it was important to their daughter and her friends.   My mum was always incredibly close to her father as were his siblings, as Shirley will testify. My sister, Sandee and I spent a lot of time with them when we were young.   They were very active Grandparents – Grandad was after all only 40 when my sister was born.

   

An aspect of my grandparents life that fascinated me as a child and inspired me in later life was their sense of adventure for holidays and travel.   They were one of the early adopters of the foreign package holidays that started to become available in the mid-60’s.   They also went further afield to Russia and several times to America to visit his sister Beryl.   They also always bought back Sandee and I gifts which we treasured, some of which I’ve kept to this day.

 

In 1995 and only a few years into their retirement, Granny suffered viral Encephalitis of the brain.  This left her memory severely impaired for the rest of her life.  My Grandad took on the role of carer and did an amazing job of looking after her – I am so in awe of how he managed to do this.  He made sure they continued to have an active life - continuing to go on holidays and up until very recently they carried on dancing.   It was through dancing that my grandparents originally met and was something my Granny, in particular, loved.    Grandad had made a promise to her that on their retirement they would take up dancing again as she had for so many years supported him with his passions and roles.   He was committed to making sure that they continued to do this despite her illness.

It is only a few months ago that we were here for the funeral of Granny.  My Grandad achieved so much in his life, but certainly the biggest, most important and rewarding achievement was their marriage and partnership of 75 years.   Whilst we are sad on the passing of Grandad we take comfort that he is once again reunited with his beloved Jean.