I would like to tell you a little about my father’s hobbies and passions particularly those we shared, starting with a subject close to my own heart Dad’s journey as a craftsman. 
 
Between David and Dilys retiring there was a gap, Dad chose to fill that gap by enrolling on a furniture making course at Bridgewater College. I wasn’t surprised that Dad chose furniture making, he always enjoyed woodwork and he confided in me he was looking forward to being taught the correct way of doing things. What did surprise me was Dad having time to fill, I knew that he enjoyed drawing and painting, kept detailed illustrated journals of his life and travels, he loved to sing in choirs and was part of Wedmore Opera, sailing and canoeing had been hobbies, there was a large garden and vegetable patch to maintain, chicken and guinea fowl to look after, Dad loved walking, music, literature and corresponding with friends around the world, not a man short of things to do. 
 
One of my favourite parts of any visit to Oak House was time in the workshop chatting to Dad about his current furniture making project. Over time I saw his confidence as a craftsman increase, I saw his own style develop, his enthusiasm for the creative process from maket to the finished piece evident. I hadn’t known this but David was as proud of his City and Guilds in furniture making as his many scientific and academic accolades. I’m sure that most of you here will have a piece of David’s furniture in their home, Stella and I have a lovely side board and an elegant writing bureau, a physical and lasting legacy of a dedicated craftsman. 

The last photograph taken of my father and I is the pair of us standing over his beloved Granby racing bike, he had allowed me to restore the bike and I had brought it to Cheddar for his approval, cycling and bicycles had become an increasingly important part of our relationship, although growing up I hadn’t known Dad was as a young man a committed and passionate cyclist, to me he was always a runner, a jogger.
 
We jogged together in the lanes around Charney Bassett, we ran together in events organised but his running club at the Letcombe Regis Research Facility where he worked, we ran in early editions of the Sunday Times Fun Run in Hyde Park. 
 
It was only when I started to take my own cycling seriously eight years ago that Dad started to tell me of his time as a young man cycling the roads of Kent. He did some epic rides perhaps the most impressive being a ride from his house in Bexleyheath down to his farming relations in Dorset, a ride of well over 100 miles along the A31, the Hogs Back, a road with far less traffic in the 1950’s than today. Dad didn’t think much of modern racing bikes, he admired the technology but thought them ugly compared to the elegant lines of the classic steel framed bikes he rode. 
 
Dad’s interests were many and varied but none of them really defined him, what made David the man he was were his real passions in life – his love for Dilys and the life and home they built together – his love and pride in his children and his grandchildren.
 
I shall miss him a lot. 
 
Turn on the music!