My friend Bill loved cakes

A couple of years before Bill died his wonderful next door neighbours Graham and Sheila were given control of his money. Every week they bought him things for his store cupboard and fridge. One Friday - I went down to see him every Friday - I went to get Bill a couple of Mr. Kipling’s finest to go with his coffee…. the cupboard was bare. I looked everywhere, but no cakes to be seen. I went back in to the living room and told Bill the shocking news… Graham and Sheila - who were on holiday in their caravan for a week - had forgotten to buy Bill his cakes. I rush out to the Co-op and purchased several boxes of cakes to tide Bill over. The next week I spoke to Graham and berated him gently for forgetting Bill’s cakes. He told me he had bought eight boxes of six or eight cakes and tarts and left them with Bill on Thursday morning – 56 cakes we estimated in total. Bill had eaten them all in the following 24 hours!

My friend Bill loved cakes.

Before the war Bill was a Co-op delivery boy. He was so dedicated that he did two complete rounds with his horse Dennis. He delivered bread and cake and confectionary and was paid £2/10/- a week plus he received a Shilling in the Pound commission on cakes. One week he earned over £9, at a time when £2/10/- was a good wage. I don’t know if that is why he loved cakes! The cakes were made by the legendary ‘Chuffy’ Godwin. I once asked Bill why he was called ‘Chuffy’ and Bill said it was because he had a big head, but I was none the wiser.

Bill was a fine sportsman, playing for Corinthians at football and various teams at cricket. His father was approached in the early 1930’s by a prominent league football team who offered Bill an apprenticeship. His father turned them down with the classic ‘why would he want to sign with you, he has a good job at the Co-op?’ Those were the days!

During the war Bill was a Royal Marine, but spent most of the time playing sport for the Marines or the Combined Services, including he told me a memorable match at ‘Syracusa Stadium in front of 30,000 servicemen’. One day I must try to work out where and when that match was.

His first day of action was landing in Normandy on D Day as part of 45 Commando. He landed in seven feet of water with the barked instruction – Keep your rifle dry! Bill couldn’t swim – some Marine – but somehow made it to the shore. Lifting his face up from the sand he saw next to him an old school friend that he had not seen for years. He never told me any other stories about his war.

After the war Bill worked in the office at the Greater Nottingham Co-op and became a member of the Board. He probably never again earned as much in relative terms as his days before 1939, but he continued to have contact with cakes and confectionary as his job was to control their Society wide distribution.

Once when Bill became a bit disorientated after a serious water infection he spent a few days in a horrific local care home. He refused to eat and when I went to see him I asked if they had tried giving him cakes, but cakes were not good for him, was their reply. Luckily for Bill he never had to return to that god forsaken place. I would tell you more about it, but it still upsets me.

There is a lot more I could say about Bill. It was my honour to carry out his funeral service when he passed away in his early nineties and do you know what, I think I might have mentioned that my friend Bill loved cakes.