On the 7th September 1927 the New York Times was heralding yet another great achievement of the famous Babe Ruth. Unknown to them, thousands of mile away in Stepney, a truly unique man was being brought in to this world. Born Jack John Press, JJ or John as most of us knew him, was born to parents Esther and Harry and joined his sister Evelyn in what was going to prove a testing childhood. To his last breath, John maintained he was "True Londoner", born in the sounds of Bow Bells and immensely proud of being part of this select group, however, this stretched credibility slightly as Bow Bells could only be heard from Stepney on the quietest of Days, and then with a hearing aid. The world in to which John was born was one of hardwork, hard knocks and hardships. The great war had only finished 9 years earlier and Great Britain was still suffering the depression, however Johns dad worked hard to ensure that he could provide for his family and give them a better than average standard of living. Johns mother, Esther, was a hard woman who found it difficult to show effection, so John and Evelyn formed a particularly strong bond which would last throughout Johns life. 4 days before John's 12th birthday War was declared on Germany and life in Stepney would change forever. A year later, actually on John's 13th birthday the first bomb was dropped on London and John joined the huge number of fleeing children to became an evacuee, being sent to safety in Wales. Evelyn and her fiance Bernard also fled the city and moved to Northampton, once settled they sent for John and together they made a new home in the country. Towards the end of the War, John returned to London, however things were difficult at home and so John lied about his age and joined the Army. He always joked that he fancied his chances more with the combined Nazi war machine than with his Mum, and there started Johns military career. Private John Press, Royal Engineers, couldn't have timed things worse, 4 weeks in to his 6 weeks basic training the war ended, leaving JJ to serve a further 7 years, but, like always John made the best of this situation and rose to the rank of sergeant, serving in Egypt, Greece and Germany to name but a few. It was in Egypt that John learnt to drive, his test being simply to get a truck between two sanddunes without crashing, which John succeeded in doing, and from that moment forward there would never be a better driver in the world, at least according to JJ. After leaving the Army, John returned to Northampton where is whole family now lived, joining the family business in financial services as a fiscal distribution consultant, or as they were known then, a money lender! It was during this time that John met his first wife, Aida and in 1954 they were married. In 1956 John and Aida had their First Child Allen, shortly to be followed by Elise and Millie. The Press family lived happily in Northampton until 1970 when John and Aida split and John moved to Hayling Island. It was in 1970 that John met his Second wife, Sheila. They had a whirlwind romance resulting in the Birth of David, however Sheila and Johns relationship grew strained, hindered by poor health for many years Sheila passed away in 1981. Following Sheilas death, John threw himself in to single parenthood and at a School meeting met Beryl, the woman who would prove to be the love of his life. In 1982 John and Beryl were married and added to the stable of children John acquired 2 stepsons, Stephen and Stuart, bringing the total offspring to 6 and eventually adding 10 Grand Children, and 1 Great Grandaughter. Finally after 54 years, John had found true happiness with Beryl and they were to be inseparable for the next 23 years. Those who knew John and Beryl together would agree that neither were perfect, however they were each other’s perfect. In 2001 John and Beryl made the decision to leave the UK and spend their twilight years enjoying their lives in the sun of Spain. Those here will know the rest of the story. Sadly in 2005 Beryl passed away from Cancer and John lost his soul mate. None of us quite knew how he would carry on without Beryl, but JJ soldiered on and although desperately lost without her, he finally made the decision to carry on with life. In 2008 John and Bet became companions and through his final years they found mutual happiness. On the 16th September 2010 Jack John Press, aged 83 years went to sleep and may he rest in peace. Now the official bit's over, here's the man I knew: Quite simply, I loved my Dad. He was 2 men, most people saw 1 side of him, warm, kind, charismatic, funny and generous, a few saw his other side, insecure, a master at manipulating people, an emotional blackmailer, and a total rogue. I knew both sides of this man and to parady the saying "he's the man you love to hate", My dad was the man you'd love and hate. A roguish charmer, what a combination. I would love to regal you all with tales to illustrate his personality, but I don't need to, you all knew him. Some people spend their life trying to achieve greatness in business, others aim to be great intellectuals, my dad spent his life trying to be Happy. It took him many years to finally achieve it, but he did it. There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of happiness, in fact it seems to me to be one of the things we should all strive for. He was my father, my work colleague, my mentor, my brother and my friend, today I say goodbye to all of them. sleep well JJ.