Alan Stanley Smith
April 6, 2021 10:14 am | by admin | Posted in Tributes
Alan S Smith (18th July 1935 – 16th October 2020 )
Alan was born in Edmonton the first child of Stanley and Violet Smith of nearby Enfield. In 1939 he moved to Biggleswade with his parents and younger brother Peter. At the age of 8 he joined the church choir, where he sang for many years. When he was 9 Cyril Smith (no relation) one of the men choristers took Alan up into the tower where he learnt to ring. He remained a member of the local band for the rest of his life. In 1949, the year he rang the first of his 149 peals (3 ‘in hand’) he joined the Bedfordshire Association and during the subsequent 71 years he was a fervent supporter; holding nearly all of the administrative offices at one time or another. He was elected an Honorary Life Member in recognition of this service.
One of his most far-reaching influences was, for many years, to organise a weekly district practice, so as to give everyone the chance to advance their ringing with methods not available to them at their home tower. These practices were at a different tower each week, some of which would have otherwise remained silent. As part of this initiative, he called a peal in which the other five ringers were ringing their first peal. He was also closely involved in organising and running a tombola stall at an annual Gala Day run by the local Round Table. These events attracted large crowds and were a major fund raiser for the District Bell Restoration Fund, which was thus able to support several major projects throughout the area, including the complete rehang and retune at Potton to mark the Association Centenary.
Early in his ringing career he joined with a group of other young ringers from around the county, including Sheila Duffin from Potton who cycled to Biggleswade each practice night, to go on a cycling and ringing holiday, staying at youth hostels. This group of “Bedfordshire Young Ringers” (as the RW named them) became well established although in recent times they travelled by car and used more comfortable accommodation. It is a matter of some amusement that most of the senior members of the Association are referred to as “The Young Ringers”.
Developing from these trips he and Sheila were married in 1958. They had two daughters, Yvonne and Elaine, who Alan taught to ring, having previously taught his youngest brother (me) and it was a source of pride for us that we managed to ring several family peals on both 6 and 8 bells. The last one of these would have been in July this year to celebrate Alan’s 85th birthday, but unfortunately this became one of the many victims of governmental decree.
Life was not entirely devoted to ringing. He was a member of the Biggleswade Choral Society from 1958 and still sang with them regularly. At different times he was Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Publicity Officer.
In addition to his many and varied leisure activities he was a faithful member of St Andrew’s Biggleswade from starting in the choir and then to become an altar server, a service he was still giving at the 8am BCP service each week.
He and Sheila owned firstly a river cruiser and then a succession of narrowboats. These took them all over the country during which time they covered 95% of the English and Welsh canals and rivers, taking friends and family aboard for days or weeks. Being an active man Alan became a regular member of working parties clearing and maintaining the canals. It was on one of these that he suffered a heart attack from which he never recovered consciousness. This was a great shock to all who knew him, but we are comforted in knowing that when his end came, it was quick and without suffering, whilst he was doing something he enjoyed.
Throughout his life Alan was always happy to help others and there are now several people who will not have him to run errands and cut their grass. Attendance at the funeral was, of necessity, limited but a lot of people took the opportunity to stand at the road side and in the churchyard, or to follow the live streaming of the service, to say farewell to a true Gentleman, as he made his final journey to the Church he had served so well. R.I.P.
This was compiled with reference to a summary of his life that Alan wrote, at the request of one of his granddaughters, with additional help from Yvonne Humberstone and Peter Smith.