Ted Childs

21/01/2016

London Branch have been informed of the sudden death of Ted Childs. As a deferred peacetime National Service candidate, Ted served at Hornet from 1954–56 as an Engine Room Artificer (ERA). Fellow branch member Ted Else served there around the same time, although the two had never actually met until introduced to one another in 2004 by his nephew Paul Childs, owner of the preserved ex-Gay Archer (P1041). Both Teds were to meet again at a London Branch meeting, and over numerous subsequent visits to Northwich to observe progress in the restoration work on Gay Archer, were to become firm friends.

Ted had suffered from mobility issues in recent years, necessitating the use of a mobility scooter which he carried in a car acquired for that purpose. He had used them recently at the end of last year to visit Watchet—where Gay Archer is berthed—in the company of another close friend, John Riddington, himself an ERA at Hornet during the same period, and a one-time member of the now defunct Anglian Branch of the CFVA.

Ted was a very keen modeller, who enjoyed modelling in the difficult scale of 1/16th, where everything has to be scratch built, there being few propriety items available. His unfinished masterpiece was a model of HMS Gay Charger, a boat Ted had fond memories of through a trip made to the Netherlands while on a NATO exercise.

Married to wife Joan, with whom he shared a love of dancing, Ted was also a musical person, having once been a member of a small quartet band.

Funeral Arrangements

Date: Thursday 4th February, 2016
Time: 15:00

Venue: Albert Munn Chapel, Kettering Crematorium
Address: Rothwell Road
Kettering
Northants
NN16 8XE