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These are the simple facts of the life of Jim Watson but they do not
indicate a tremendous amount of living in those years. He was born
in Helmdon and indeed spent the whole of his life there and always
took a close interest in the happenings in the village. This he did
right up until he died.
In his early years he was a keen and successful sportsman, this despite
his disability in one eye. He captained and was the treasurer of Helmdon
Football and Cricket Club and he was saddened when there was no cricket
team in the village this year. He also was a keen tennis player a
doughty opponent at billiards and snooker and a good shot.
He courted and was engaged to Olive before they married in September
1945 and over the next five years they had a son Richard better known
as Willie and a daughter Sue. These were hard times in farming with
a lot of physical work from early morning to late at night with all
of the family involved. Holidays were taken usually in Devon to fit
the weather and if it changed it could mean an abrupt end to the holiday.
Jim and Olive were to return in later years for holidays to Sidmouth
with Horace and Barbara Bates and always seemed to enjoy them.
Over the years Jim also served the local community as treasurer of
the Helmdon and Weston Chapels and also as a Parish Councillor. He
was and remained until his death a well respected figure in the farming
and general community.
As time moved on Jim's recreations changed and he turned to his love
of gardening particularly his roses and he was very proud of his own
garden but also took great delight in the creations of Sue and Willie
and was very proud of both of them. He was a keen stamp collector
and maintained his interest having a spell recently cataloguing them
The other sport in which he now took an interest was horse racing
and I (Peter Burns) have to accept some blame in this. However I think
it was his earlier involvement with Gill and Barry Brazier and their
horse Rolls Rambler that sowed the seeds of his interest, he became
a very shrewd punter and he always enjoyed his later visits to the
races. His only problem was that when Sunday racing came in Olive
frowned on this activity and so I became his bookie's runner on a
Sunday as it did not count if I put the bet on for him. If there are
bookmakers in heaven I pity them, with both Jim and the Queen Mother
to contend with.
He had a ready sense of humour but did not suffer fools gladly. In
his youth he had been something of a joker, which was highlighted,
when a well was being dug on the farm he and Phil buried a boar's
head at the bottom of the diggings for the workman to find which they
duly did. This led to a hive of activity by the local museum who thought
that they had found a prehistoric boar. Fortunately before they were
found out the diggings collapsed and they got away with it.
He was always very close to his brother Phil and his family and felt
the loss greatly when he died. However in typical fashion he got on
with life and always seemed to be giving himself new short term aims
to achieve. It could be anything from reaching a birthday, visiting
somewhere or the publishing of his book from the diaries that he had
kept for a lifetime. His battle with his chronic hip was a great test
of his fortitude and he surprised all of us a couple of years ago
by saying he was going to have a hip replacement operation. All of
the necessary investigation was done and when he was told of the risks
being 50/50, was prepared to take the risk but was told it was the
specialist who was not. Again he took it philosophically.
I think that it says a great deal about him in his later years that
he could still reach out to all age groups and was genuinely pleased
to have company. He was an avid reader and maintained an up to date
knowledge with an opinion of all that was happening locally nationally
and internationally. People who had known him, worked for him, with
him over the years and people meeting him for the first time found
pleasure in his company. We shall all miss him.
The family would like to thank everybody for their kind words and
support.
Peter Burns |