Harry Albert Tunstell

Harry A Tunstell. 2nd October 1920 – 3rd December 2013

I had lots of uncles and aunts on my father’s side.  My grandfather and grandmother both married twice, but that is another story.

My mother was the eldest daughter of a relatively small family, she had four siblings, three brothers and one sister.  My grandfather and grandmother moved from London in 1917 to avoid the Zeppelin raids during the first world war.

My mother being the eldest daughter must have had a very close relationship with the newest member of the family, Harry.  She would have been about nine years old when he was born so would have played a big part in his childhood.  This closeness continued throughout their lives.  I well remember visits to Uncle Harry’s and his family visits to us when we lived in Ham.

Our family moved to Trull, and after the death of my father in 1977 Harry was a regular visitor taking Mum, with his wife Ivy on many trips, giving my mother lots of social outings. My brother and sister shared this relationship. Harry was always a very engaging character.  I think his greatest delight was in the telling of jokes.  These jokes and the way he told them was no threat to Ken Dodd but his delivery made it clear that he enjoyed the telling as much, if not more, that his audience.

He was always my (our) favourite uncle, even from the large number I had to choose from, and I always told him so.  He did joke in the later years that the list to choose from grew shorter and shorter.

The loss of his wife Ivy in July 2012 was a blow which he bore with quiet stoicism which was typical of him and his generation. He was basically confined in-doors away from his beloved garden and he slowly faded away dying in his sleep on the 3rd December 2013.

It would be nice if there were many more uncles like him for modern families to share, I do hope there are.

I treasure his memory and this short blog is my small way of marking his passing and preserving that memory.