The funeral of Ted Goodacre, a long-standing member of our congregation, took place on 25 January at St Mary’s. An obituary will appear in April’s edition of the Ewell Parish News, but we publish here a second obituary in memory of Ted, and in thanksgiving for his life.
Farewell to Ted Goodacre
In 1976, St Mary’s Parish News printed a short profile of Ted, who at that time was a longstanding parishioner who had first attended the Church soon after moving to the area in 1954. Ted and Celia had been drawn to the church by Rev Brooke, and Ted really never felt any other church was his home. After a long battle with Parkinson’s, which left him unable to remain living in Highfield Drive and needing the excellent care that he received in his final years at Priory Court, he passed away just as this new year began. Ted’s family all now live away from Ewell, but were extremely pleased that Ted’s funeral on 25th January was held in the Church he loved so much, surrounded by not only his family and many colleagues from the City, but also a large number of old friends from St Mary’s.
Ted was a Londoner to the core, having been born in Shoreditch in the days when it was a far cry from the fashionable place it has become; he recalled it as a place where the police used to foot patrol in pairs for safety! Moving progressively out of the centre to Tottenham, he lost his father at the age of 14 as he pushed Ted out of the way of a careering hit & run under age driver. That experience had a lasting effect on him – he struggled whenever he had to enter a hospital his entire life, and could never understand his younger son’s surgical career as a way of life. Left as the only man in the family to support his mother and two younger sisters, he began work in the City as an office junior in the dark days as the 2nd World War was brooding.
Soon after the outbreak of war, Ted volunteered for the RAF; however, finding a queue for that service, he signed up for the Navy instead … a fine example of his peculiar ways determining his life’s pattern! From then, for 6 years from age 18 to 24, he was at the sharp end of things, much of it with the Arctic Convoys. He had a real talent for reading morse code and touch typing the messages, despite the rolling of the seas. He was therefore well-suited to be a communicator-a sparker- and was always known as “Sparks”. Winston Churchill said that those journeys were the worst in the world; after enduring 8 Convoys, and including the D day invasion, he then volunteered for the Far East. He had married Cicely (Celia) in 1944, and when he returned home in 1946 (having being shipwrecked en route) his first son Peter was already 6 months old. With the pressure on housing in post war London it took some time to find a family home, but eventually coming to Ewell in 1954, his marriage to Celia for 68 years helped shape the man that he was.
At the very young age of 34, Ted became a partner in the firm of stockbrokers that he had rejoined as a clerk after the war. He remained with them till the end of his career. He was immensely popular in the square mile, a good communicator and highly trusted. He was quick at mental arithmetic, and this was a very useful skill to have in the days before calculators when shares were denominated in shillings, pence halfpennies and farthings. A great honour for him was being asked to help raise funds for the Stock Exchange benevolent fund, which in his year’s tenure raised the largest sum ever at that time. He also became a Stock Exchange scrutineer, again a mark of the esteem with which is integrity was held in that world.
Having met such challenges in his youth, Ted was always conscious of the needs of others who were less fortunate than him. So he became a prison visitor at Wormwood Scrubs, helped at the London Embankment Mission for down and outs, and visited the mentally handicapped at St Ebba’s hospital for many years until it was closed down. And with his Navy background he joined the Trustees of the King George’s Fund for Sailors. In these, as with so many more local events such as at St Mary’s, he would be ‘hands on’ and could always be relied on to entertain on the piano. He didn’t need music to accompany anyone. His favourite repertoire included Noel Coward, Cole Porter and songs from the musicals.
He also had a very good eye for a ball and loved watching cricket at Lords, enjoying as much the pre-match banter as the match itself.
At his funeral, one of his grandchildren summed up much of Ted’s nature in the following comment …
‘through all his funny and eccentric ways, Granddad demonstrated true Christian values to us – great integrity, neighbourliness and charity in particular. It doesn’t surprise me that Granddad was a wireless operator on his ship in the navy. For one he had an astonishingly big pair of ears, but also because he has always been a great listener. What seemed important to Granddad was people and relationships – whether that be the family, the staff who looked after him at Priory Court, the ‘down and outs he would serve at the Embankment Mission, his colleagues in the city or his friends in the queue at Lords. Granddad has left us with so many fond memories because as my sister put it so well, Granddad made growing up fun.’
Ted was well known by many at St Mary’s, and his family want to thank the whole church community for their friendship of Ted and Celia over so many years, and the great support that that has meant to them both.