Boy ringer Sid lived to be 95
THANKS to Marina Dewing for this Twenties gem. It features her father, Sid Smith, when he was in his late teens and an active handbell ringer with the Kitto Institute.
"Dad started work as a bricklayer at a very young age and later went on to serve the Co-op Building Service as a supervisor. During the war he served with the RAF and was in France repairing and refuelling.
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CHIMES PAST: Kitto Institute Handbell Ringers, October 1928: Standing, from left: C Brokenshire, F Parfit, R Gould, J Matthews, J Martin, S Smith, A Cutler. Sitting: H Winnicott (YMCA Hon Chairman) and HC Studinski (Leader, Kitto Institute)
"Then he went back to the Co-op. They had a lot of farms in those days and I remember him driving here there and everywhere every Friday, with a little wooden briefcase containing little brown envelopes – pay packets for the men.
"He retired from that after having a heart attack when he was 60, but he didn't stop work; he then spent 24 years with Thompson and Jackson, the solicitors, as an office manager. He died four years ago, aged 95."
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