John Hammond's Funeral

From Pat and Bill Matthews at John' s Funeral

On 12th January Bill & I went to John Hammond’s funeral held at Randall's Park Crematorium. I went on the bus & Bill cycled. Unfortunately, Bill got a puncture and arrived about 3 minutes late.

I was quite early as I caught a bus 30 minutes earlier than expected, but while wandering around I met up with Lynda Barrow and somebody I hadn’t seen for some years. We’d passed each other while killing time & smiled, said hello and thought, “I think I have seen that person before.” Anyway, when we met up again with Lynda, we found out that we had cycled together some years ago with the Wayfarers. His name is John Soole. He’d moved to the West Country some years ago. He had met John Hammond’s son, Brian, in the local church and after exchanging conversations realised he had ridden with Brian’s father, John Hammond, and that was how he heard about and attended the funeral. I had met Brian at the Home, where John was staying, on his 95th Birthday.

After the funeral, we all went to the local golf club to eat and get together and after this John was kind enough to give me a lift home. It was lovely to meet up with him again, despite it being on a sad occasion, and I know quite a few members of the Wayfarers will remember cycling with him. He certainly remembered the names of a lot of the members who are still with us.

There were just we four, from the Wayfarers, at the funeral.

Pat Matthews