Memories of Grandad Jim

Memories of our granddad Jim


Firstly, please forgive me in advance if my voice gets a bit wobbly, I’ve a feeling this is going to be a little emotional!

I’d like to start by saying how proud I am to be the oldest of our grandad’s many grandchildren & great grandchildren & it’s not very often you’ll hear me say I’m proud to be old. It truly is an honour that I’m able to stand here & speak on behalf of all of us about our brilliant grandad Jim.

Our grandad really was a great character; he & our nanny Kit have been amazing grandparents and really would do anything for any one of us. No matter how naughty we’d been! And believe me, some of us must have tested their patience over the years… In turn, we would have done anything for him & we did, up until the very last moment. We hope we did him as proud as he did us all of our lives.

My cousins & I thought it would give you some idea of what he meant & still means to us, by sharing with you some of our favourite & funny memories… This is just a few of the very many I received….

This is from Ben:

I will remember grandad for always making me laugh. Even during his very last days he had me in fits of laughter, filling my eyes with not crying tears, but laughing tears.

When I was about ten or eleven he and nanny took Casey, Sally, Peter & me to Broad Reeds holiday camp, near Bognor Regis for what was one of my favourite kids holidays, and apart from his usual moaning and groaning, and Casey & I having a tear up on the last day, we all had the best time and he looked after us all just like a Dad would have done.

In 1994, our family went to Florida. This was the last holiday I spent with my own dad, and Grandad being there only made it all the more enjoyable and memorable for me. Especially when on the flight home, my mum told the air hostess to tell grandad that the fish on the menu was a lovely piece of skate from Westmoreland Road. The silly old sod only believed her.

This is what sticks in Matthew, Bobby & Jimmy’s mind when they think of grandad:

There are so many memories of grandad, but for us growing up, a lot of them occurred at the infamous ‘Rye Hill Tenants Club’ where we would plead to join Dad, Grandad and Uncle Steven up the club every Sunday night, sitting mesmerised watching them play cards into the early hours. We could see the three Millers playing ‘tootsie’ under the table (in other words cheating against the other players) and yet come the end of the night we would say to Grandad “who won grandad?”, and he would always say “that poxy Alf again”!


Sally wanted to say this:

My grandad was the best. Grandad & I loved a glass of champagne, and when we were at a party he always got me up to dance. That all started when I was a little girl when we went on holiday & I got him up to dance. My grandad still thought I was that same little girl, and that’s why he always called me his little Sally. I love my grandad so much and always did anything I could for him. There will always be a piece of my heart broken now & I’ll never forget him. He meant the world to me and always will. I love you grandad.

When Sally shared this with me, it brought to mind one of my own earliest memories of our grandad – he’s obviously the reason why we all love to dance because from being tiny toddlers, he’d grab hold of our hands & put our little feet onto his & dance around with us to whatever happened to be playing on the record player, & even if nothing was playing, he’d sing to us one of his favourite tunes….

Little Harvey remembers:

There are loads of things I will remember about granddad Jim, but one that I really remember is when he rattled his teeth at me while they were still in his head, it made me cry, but every time I saw him, I made him do it again.

Little Harriett has this memory:

Climbing up the mountain is mine, and I make my daddy do it every night when he comes home from work.

Shelley & Ricky wanted to say:

Grandad to us was amazing, how he could share his love with so many of us. If we have to think of just one thing he taught us, it is to laugh, sing and love each other.


Louie remembers when Granddad taught him how to play cards and all of the tricks he used to teach him. And he remembers how grandad used to pretend he was throwing dice, shaking them in his hand, but making the sound by rattling his teeth & then taking them out.. also when Grandad used to play a trick and find fifty pence behind Louie’s ears and then give it to him. Louie also looked forward to telling grandad how many goals he had scored at football because he would give him a pound a goal.

Lucy remembers this:

When grandad took me, Jodie & Louie to Trafalgar square to feed all the pigeons and when he used to take us down to the shops and skip along with us and sing skip skip skip to the loo. Also when ever we stayed over, he used to play games with us like noughts and crosses and boxes. And he taught me how to play solitaire I still can't get the hang of that game.

Peter shared this memory:
I used to drive him to and from the Rye Hill Club in Peckham every Friday night to play cards. I would pick him up from there at about midnight and I would know as soon as he got in the car whether it was a profitable night or not. If he lost he wouldn’t say a word but if he won he would sing virtually all the way home, but when you asked him if it was a good night he would always say not bad, lost a couple of quid. This usually meant he won a tenner and I’d get my petrol money.
Casey told me:
My earliest memories are from when I was probably about 8 or 9, Saturday afternoons with Grandad and Steven usually at the flat up Rye Hill Park. We’d be watching the racing, a couple of losers down, and one of them would say “run down Cheltenham Road and put a bet on for me boy”. I would have a bit of a moan and grandad would say “go on I’ll time you see how long it takes you”. He’d write them on the betting slip give me the money and off I’d go running as fast as I could, thinking I was Shergar.
I suppose that was when Casey the racehorse era began.
Anyway, I’d get to the betting shop, open the door and say to some stranger “excuse me can you put this one for my grandad please”. Sure enough the stranger would put the bet on for me just like Grandad said. I would run all the way back, get in the lift, press floor number 5 (I couldn’t reach 7) and then run up the last 2 floors. Sure enough I’d get there and he would say “sorry boy I forgot to count”. He certainly kept me fit ! What he didn’t realise, was that I would use the “can you put this bet on for my grandad” trick for my own personal flutter from then on.
Sammy shared this with me – on hearing this, I realised our grandad’s false teeth played a huge part in all of our early years!
One of my first memories of my grandad was his "special dice teeth", I can’t remember how old I was, but from the first time he showed me his "dice teeth", I was amazed!

Another memory is from when my cousins, Jimmy, Tony, Casey, Peter, Matthew & me were playing outside & all came in for some drinks. We went in to the front room and came across our grandad sitting in his favourite chair with a soggy rollup stuck to his bottom lip that had gone out, watching his favourite geegee's on TV....What we found hilarious to the point where we were all crying with laughter was when the horse that grandad had had a bet on was doing well and every time the field went around a bend he was leaning so far over that he nearly fell out of his chair – totally oblivious to anyone else in the room. These are just 2 memories of many of my grandad Jim, now at peace with his daughter Susan, my beautiful mum.



Our Granddad always thought he knew best & would try to catch you out all the time with your spellings or a random trivia fact. This sticks in my mind so much that I did seriously consider a floral tribute of the word ‘phlegm’. I’m sure I would have spelled it wrong though granddad, so I thought better of it…

Enjoy your Mojo’s grandad & tell daddy & auntie Susan we told them to look after you.

Finally, to quote Ben, but I’m sure a thought shared by all of us:

If love is wealth Grandad, you were the richest man on the planet.