I well remember Uncle Bernard. He was the Uncle I became closest to. This was mainly because I lived overseas and when I was sent to Public School in England Bernard drew the short straw and became, in effect, my guardian. I got to know him well during my half term visits. He had a great sense of humour and was good with his hands. So good he became the street mechanic (compared to his neighbour who was the street gas
technician).

As a result of the happy times I spent with Bernard, Maureen and his family, they were condemned to put up with my irregular
visits to the UK over the years. I was finally able to reciprocate when he and Maureen did their first major oversees trip (Europe didn't count) which included Canada and Australia. I was able to show them around Canberra (where I live) and take them on a road trip to the South Coast (area South of Sydney). There are two things I remember most of that visit. The first was Bernard and my father visiting one of those small museums in a small country town full of old bric a brac and all they could say to each other was”Claude/Bernard look at this, do you remember that, how we used to etc”. It was like looking at the home contents of their childhood. The other thing was having to watch over two hours of Bernards unedited trip on the Canadian train over the Rockies. He later condensed this down to about 1 minute for the BBC. I confess, I wish I had seen the BBC version but I suppose it was payback for all the times I had annoyed him in the UK. I will miss him and never forget him.

Pierre King (Nephew)