Family Tribute by Adam Shuttleworth

I would like to take a few minutes to talk about Peter’s life story and some of his key achievements that show the quality of the person he was.

Peter was born in Castle Bromwich, at that time in Warwickshire, in 1929, at Grandma and Grandad’s brand-new house on Stechford Lane, and the family was completed three years later by the arrival of his younger brother John. The family led a settled life typical of those pre-war years, with Grandad setting off every morning on the tram to his office in Colmore Row, regular trips to the newly-built Beaufort Cinema a short walk away, and summer holidays on the south coast in Bournemouth and on the Isle of Wight.

Then came the outbreak of war in 1939, and like millions of other children, Peter and John at the ages of 10 and 7 were evacuated away from the city and their parents’ home to stay with a family in Hinckley. This was an uncomfortable time to say the least for two small children living away in a strange home with unfamiliar food. And so after a few months’ absence, when the expected bombing raids had not materialised, like many other parents Grandma brought them back home again.

Now aged 11 in 1940, Peter passed the 11-plus and went initially to Saltley Grammar School, then the following year won a place at King Edward’s School. Conditions at King Edward’s were not ideal. The school was still under construction after its move out of the city centre a few years earlier and many of the regular teaching staff were away in the forces. But there were many compensations, and above all the opportunities for sport: cricket, athletics and especially rugby.

At an early age Peter had learned to ride a bike, and this started him on a life-long love of sport and outdoor activities. With very little traffic on the roads in those days, he and his school friends could cycle all round the local area and, later on, far into the surrounding countryside. Playing and watching rugby were life-long enthusiasms. He played rugby throughout his time at school and carried on afterwards into his twenties with the Old Edwardians, later becoming captain of the Old Edwardians rugby team, an early recognition of his talents as a team-player and a leader. His gift for friendship also came to the fore. At King Edward’s and through his rugby he made many good friendships that lasted a lifetime, and especially with Maurice Simpson, Roy Davies, Keith Symes, Gerry Kavanagh and John Baker.

In 1945 Peter took his School Certificate and applied successfully to join ICI at Witton as a management trainee. Then in the following year he made the decision to combine working at ICI with studying for an external degree at London University. This involved studying by correspondence, working on the bus to and from work, and at home in the evenings and at weekends over a period of seven years, sacrificing many other activities and social life along the way. In an era when very few young people took university degrees, it was a tribute to his determination and hard work that he was rewarded with success when he graduated in 1953.

In 1947 Peter began his National Service with the 4th/ 7th Royal Dragoon Guards, initially in Palestine and then, after the British withdrawal from Palestine in 1948, in Tripolitania in North-West Libya. He always spoke warmly about his years in the forces. The Regiment had been formed after the First World War from two previous regiments, 4th and 7th Royal Dragoon Guards, and the new regiment took as its motto the words “quis separabit” (who shall separate us?). These words were taken, as we shall see from the Bible reading in a few minutes, from the New Testament, and this theme of unity and loyalty made a deep impression on him.

In 1954 Peter was finally free of his study commitments. One evening that Spring he went with friends to a dance at Birmingham University and it was there that he had the great good fortune to meet his future wife, Joan. They were engaged two years later – Peter sold his car to buy the engagement ring – and they were married in St Augustine’s Church, Edgbaston on a snowy morning just after Christmas in 1956, the start of a long and happy marriage.

Settling quickly into married life at their first home in Hanbury Road, Dorridge, in 1958 Peter was offered a job with Ratcliffs (Canada) in Toronto and the young couple made the big decision to leave England and emigrate to Canada. So in September 1958 they made the four-day Atlantic crossing on the liner Empress of England from Liverpool to Montreal. In their four years in Canada they travelled extensively and made many friends, but the pull of home was too strong and in 1962 they returned to Warwickshire, now with their two children, and settling in Sutton Coldfield where they remained for the next 35 years.

Peter resumed his career at ICI and soon afterwards was promoted to Sales Director initially at IMI Wolverhampton Metals, and then later at RTZ.

Outdoor activities continued, now as a family: walking in the Cotswolds, in the Lake District and on the South West Coast, picnics on quiet country lanes, swimming and walking by the sea in Dorset and Devon, building up a lifetime of happy memories for us all.

In 1993 Peter retired, and after moving here to Claverdon in 1997, he and Joan spent 25 happy years walking the Warwickshire countryside, enjoying holidays in Devon and days out with their grandchildren, looking after their garden, keeping up with their numerous friends and travelling abroad to North America, Italy and Austria.

Born in Warwickshire, and apart from those few short years on National Service and in Canada, Peter lived his whole life in Warwickshire, no more than 25 miles from where he was born, always deeply rooted in his native county and country. As I am sure you know, the name Peter means “the rock” from the Greek word petros. He always lived up to his name, the secure foundation for his family, very generous, and a devoted husband to his wife of 67 years. His old regimental motto, Quis separabit, “Who shall separate us?”, was the inscription they chose together for his final resting-place.