Donald
Rutherford
(1914 to 2010)
By Alison North (ne Rutherford) Don's daughter.
Dad
was born in Hull in 1914 almost 96 years ago.
After leaving school he went to Art College before starting work at
Danbys, plumbing and heating merchants.
He was there for over 50 years, working his way from Office Boy to
Managing Director and Chairman. He
was not only a well respected local business man, but he was also heavily
involved in promoting standards within the industry, including co-founding
an education and training body for the electrical and plumbing trades.
He always did hate to see terrible plumbing!
Danbys was clearly a big part of his life.
It was also the place he met Mum his future wife.
His
working life at Danbys was punctuated only by the 6 years of the 2nd
world war. At the start of the
war, he joined the RAF as a non-commissioned officer.
He became a pilot, a parachutist, and also spent some time training
others in what was at that time, with rather more unreliable equipment,
the very dangerous activity of jumping out of planes.
He joined the elite Special Operations Executive, also known as
Churchill’s Secret Army. Undergoing
commando training, he became highly skilled in unarmed combat.
As part of his training in the highlands of Scotland, he learnt how
to sneak right up to a Red Deer, without it ever seeing, hearing or
smelling him. This no doubt
proved a useful skill in the various clandestine operations he carried
out, primarily in the Far East in Borneo, Malaysia and India.
By the end of the war he was an Acting Squadron Leader.
It
seems that many of the skills learnt during the war appear to have stayed
with him. Even in his 80’s
he could still do an impressive forward roll, to avoid a nasty fall, and
Mum has frequently been heard complaining in recent months, that Dad would
enter a room and be standing at her shoulder before she knew anything
about it.
He
always said he had flat feet, but despite this, he seemed to be good at so
many different sports. He played football and cricket for local teams, he
was a local champion boxer, enjoyed sailing, and motorbike racing
including in the Isle of Mann TT Race.
As
well as being a good sportsman, artist, business man, and catcher of Red
Deer, he was also an incredibly practical and capable man.
Amongst other things he made a slide, a swing and a rabbit hutch,
several sheds (the last, well into his 80s) and with the exception of the
bricklaying and roof tiling, for which he needed help, he designed and
built the family home from scratch on his evenings and weekends.
He
wasn’t completely flawless of course.
Some examples include the deception of his mother, who didn’t
approve of motor bikes, and never even knew he owned one.
She never realised, when she described to him the accident she’d
witnessed involving a young man skidding off his bike, that the young man
involved was actually him. During
his marriage to mum, there could be some ‘heated discussions’, but
within 10 minutes, and one sheepish grin, which was his way of
apologising, the air was cleared.
Another
example is of the Sunday brunch, for which he decided to take full
responsibility. Each week he
would spend hours in the kitchen, with apparently no idea when it might be
ready. Despite this being
practically the only meal he cooked, and it being the same meal every
single week, he still expected the chef to be praised for his great
culinary prowess each and every time (I admit, when it finally came it was
always pretty good!). Another
thing which drove everyone mad, was his liking for James Last and Klaus
Wonderlik, which he insisted on putting on at top volume at every
available opportunity, so we could all appreciate the big band sound.
My final example is that he strangely never moaned at all about
some of the more serious ailments he’s had; dysentery; stroke; hip
replacement or a broken neck, but whenever he got what he always referred
to as a head cold, it was absolutely the worst illness he’d ever had!
In
his retirement he enjoyed pottering in his greenhouse (in his terrible old
gardening hat!), his ride on mower, his fish, helping with the Hedon
Museum and walking Muffet the dog (and of course building sheds!).
He had a phenomenal memory with which he could recount names and
details from 50 years earlier, which made him a fascinating story teller
(even when we’d all heard the story several times before!)
I
believe he will be remembered as a remarkable man who retained an
incredible youth right into his 90s. Both
kind and generous with his time and support, to his wife, his children,
the wider family, friends and neighbours.
He probably never realised how many people saw him as their second
father or brother. During the
war years he showed himself as a man of great compassion, with the
strength of character to do the right thing, regardless of self interest.
He was a great sport, had a stubborn streak and a wonderfully dry
sense of humour. Someone
recently said to me that he was one of the few truly great people they’d
ever met. He will be missed,
but he will always be remembered.