Kenneth William Bryan, in his youth, was very nearly an adventurous man. He was born in the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough in 1924. An apprentice accountant until the age of 18, he volunteered to join the Royal Navy in 1942 - a service chosen on account of his blue, "sea-going" eyes. He served on HMS Black Prince, among other ships, and was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. During and after the end of the war he was stationed at various ports, his favourite being historic Alexandria in northern Egypt where life, for him at least, was very easy.
After the war he met and married Pamela Thomsett and lived and worked in Leicestershire. He worked first in the family hosiery wholesale business, and latterly as a publican, where he expended great effort in pursuit of the title "Most Idle Man in the World". Pamela sadly died suddenly in 1984, a victim of a heartattack induced by 40 years of smoking rough cut tobacco. Kenneth subsequently moved to Devon, where he lived with his daughter and her family. Over the course of the next 19 years he divided his time equally between living in Devon and visiting his sons in the United States. While in the backwoods town of Cullompton he took no more pleasure than to read The Daily Telegraph, bask in the sun on a hot day, take a long walk through the local park, and watch sporting events on the television. A barren, tiresome and quite irritating life, some might say, and no doubt an attempt to avoid familial troubles, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.
He died in Spring of 2003 after a long and miserable period of incurable illness; afflicted by a form of vascular dementia (again, as in his wife's case, induced by the excessive consumption of tobacco), he eeked out his final days with as much dignity as anyone could expect in such circumstances. Cremated, his remains were placed with those of his wife at a graveyard in the Leicestershire village of Gilmorton. A memorial service was held a few months later. He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.
As one of his grandsons and, I would like to think, his friend, I would be interested and delighted to hear from anyone who remembers Kenneth, or has any memories of him that were passed down from others who knew him. It must be said that he was a difficult man to know; he gave little away and, like many of his generation, was reluctant to show affection, insomuch as it revealed weakness in its exhibitor and caused discomfort to all concerned.
My email address is delupin@aol.com
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