| C Kenneth Lewis M.B.E. | |
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Address delivered at his funeral by Revd. Brian Harris:
| There is something within the British character which says that all show of emotion at a funeral must be withheld - we try so hard to maintain that stiff upper lip. Yet of course we are sad when someone whom we love and hold dear passes from our earthly presence. Ken Lewis has been a great source of love and devotion to Mary, to Kathleen and Ambrose and to his grandchildren, Helen and Philip. Our love goes out to them all at this time of sorrow and, first and foremost, we wish to assure them of our love and care. Everyone here feels a great sense of grief at the end of this long and most significant of lives, but we appreciate that our loss is but little when set against that of Mary and her family. Ken's eighty-nine years have been packed with activity, crowned with outstanding achievement and rewarded with well earned honours, but it began very quietly on the Brabyns Hall Estate near Marple Bridge, just inside the base of the Cheshire Pan Handle. Ken was the eldest of three boys and the star of the village school. Always of an independent turn of mind, he had no wish to proceed to the Grammar School and refused to sit the entrance examination. His wily headmaster obtained the papers and surreptitiously placed them before Ken in the normal course of lessons. Ken proved that he would have passed with flying colours, but then Ken never doubted that anyway. Only the headmaster was frustrated. Never a robust child. Ken suffered a very serious bout of pneumonia at the age of thirteen. In 1926 that meant almost certain death, but after six weeks tender care and a diet of sips of brandy. Ken recovered. Incidentally, his life long teetotalism stemmed from that very time. His decision to avoid alcohol was not born of bigotry, but from the conviction that this form of refreshment was for medicinal purposes only. After the illness. Ken did not return to school. It was not expected that he would live for very long. so he was allowed to enjoy life with the estate workers, sitting with the coachmen and taking his hand at the reins - delivering the groceries with the grocer's horse and cart. Surprisingly he survived and, at the age of fifteen, he was sent to Manchester daily to work in the office of the Vice Consul for Uruguay. With his active mind and by dint of hard work at evening classes, Ken became proficient in commercial subjects and accounting. He rose rapidly through the office staff. He studied Spanish, becoming fluent in both the spoken and written word, and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Society of Arts. This specific qualification made him especially valuable in his work and he became involved in the control of exports to both Uruguay and the Argentine; he was particularly involved in the trade in cloth. He acquired a knowledge of fabrics which never left him, and earlier this year he was involved in the choice of cloth for the altar frontal you see here today. In his late teens Ken moved with his parents to Marple village and began his association with the church of All Saints, Marple. Here he learned to ring and was soon attracted to the change ringing band at Hazel Grove, where the country's leading spliced minor band had recently acquired their new peal of eight bells. With others of a similar age. Ken introduced change-ringing, not without difficulty, to the Marple stony band. As Ken casually reminded us in his tribute to his friend Cyril Crossthwaite in The Ringing World earlier this year, he was called to serve his country in the war of 1939-45. He saw service in North Africa and India, but as you might expect, it was his administrative ability rather than his war-like quality which was of value to his country. On demobilisation Ken took advantage of the Government's Emergency Training Scheme for Teachers and attended Padgate College at Warrington for one year. This very intensive course provided the country with some of its very best teachers in the post-war years, many of whom became heads of primary or secondary schools. Ken, who studied mathematics as his academic subject, ultimately proved to be one of those very best. His first post was at St. Mary's Church of England Primary School, Stockport. During this time he married Mary Elkins, herself a ringer with an illustrious pedigree in the history of ringing. They set up house in Altrincham and the whole of their fifty-four years of life together has been spent in this town. Their happy home has been the centre of Ken's existence and Mary's support the source of his strength and wide ranging achievement. Ken's conversation was always most animated when recounting the activities of Kathleen and later Ambrose and their children, Helen and Philip. Ken was soon to have his own school, becoming head of St. Margaret's School here in Altrincham. On the amalgamation of the three Altrincham Church of England primary schools in 1968, Ken was the obvious choice to lead the new school in its brand new building, a post he filled with distinction until his retirement in 1978. During the period of headship the Altrincham Roman Catholic primary school found itself without a building. Ken took them all in and the two schools operated on the one site until a new school could be built for the Roman Catholic children. Careful planning by Ken meant that the facilities were shared equally and amicably. What an example of ecumenism from the grass roots up! There must be many people in Altrincham, and indeed elsewhere today, who can look back and thank Ken Lewis for an excellent start in life. Ken also gave unstintingly of his time to his professional association, serving as both Secretary and President of the Cheshire County Federation of Headteachers. He was active in the Altrincham Teachers' Centre, and for nine years President of the Altrincham W.E.A. Many of us here today owe our friendship with Ken to our mutual interest in church bell-ringing. Ken's ringing career has frequently been casually described as "round the world on the 5th", but Ken's service to bellringing is without parallel. He was first elected to the Central Council in 1948 and has attended every meeting since then, including that at Norwich earlier this year. First, he was the elected member of the Chester Diocesan Guild, but his talents were quickly recognised and, time after time, he was re-elected by the Council as an Honorary Member. In 1993 The Council bestowed upon him a very rare honour, by electing him a Life Member. For the whole of this time Ken has been a member of the methods committee, firmly making his case on method construction and extension. His contributions to Council debates over the whole scope of its activities have been capably expressed, statesmanlike and wise. For the Chester Guild, Ken has held many posts, from Branch Secretary to Master. For many years Ken and Mary together produced the Guild Annual Report, with Ken as Report Secretary and Mary as Peal Recorder. It is impossible to begin to measure Ken's outstanding contribution to the organisation of the exercise. Ken was also an amazing practitioner. He was only the thirty-seventh person ever to reach the magic total of one thousand peals, a fact we know on account of Mary's diligence in combing through some thirty years of editions of The Ringing World. At that time she told Ken that he must keep his records more carefully in the future, but I'm afraid she had to start all over again when they thought that the second thousand was about to be completed. And what do these peals include? A record peal of eighty-four minor methods, including extents composed by Ken himself - twenty-one thousand of Bristol Surprise Major and fifteen thousand of Cambridge Royal (both records in their day) - three consecutive records of Spliced Surprise Major, two of which he conducted; one hundred and ten methods of Maximus when rung for the first time, together with the series of peals leading to this record; conductor of the first peals of Londinium and Brigstowe Surprise Maximus and many other methods on all numbers. And don't let anyone complain that they did not hear the bob or the change of method. There was nothing confidential or diffident about Ken's conducting. When Ken was conducting a peal of Cambridge Surprise Maximus at Bow - from the fifth as usual - the tenor ringer was observed speaking to the ringer of the eleventh and causing much amusement. This process continued eleven to ten, ten to nine etc., but stopped at the ringer of the sixth. The front end ringers observed this with some mystification and one of them consulted the eleventh ringer at the conclusion of the peal. "What did the tenor ringer say to you during the peal?" He replied, "There's a peal of Cambridge Maximus on at Cripplegate and Ken Lewis is calling that as well." As conductor Ken never let you down. The nearest I remember occurred in a peal of Spliced Surprise Major, when at a lead end a rather quieter voice than usual announced, "I can't remember the name of the method but I know it's Superlative up." A chorus of seven voices confidently proclaimed, "Lindum" and that lovely smile spread over Ken's face. In 1958 on a Friday morning at Hazel Grove, Ken conducted Pitman's five part peal of thirty Spliced Surprise Major methods. Then on a very bumpy bus ride to Macclesfield he wrote out, from memory, complete with coursing orders, the same composer's one part peal of four spliced all the work, he checked his manuscript against the printed composition and called it effortlessly in the afternoon at St. Peter's, Macclesfield. These performances brought no special mention in The Ringing World. It was all in a day's work to Ken. Ken's name will continue to appear in The Ringing World forever; his compositions will always be rung. He has produced classic compositions of: London Royal, where he was first to exploit the music of the method, Lincolnshire Major, Plain Bob for handbells, in addition to his ground breaking 720's of Spliced Minor. Ken predated BYROC by some fifty years. By the time it takes most of us to switch on the computer. Ken, with pencil and the back of an envelope, had established the falseness of a method and begun to see how the standard extent of Minor could be adapted to produce a true peal. His compositions for new methods, sent by return of post, were always within the capabilities of the enquirer. The success of the extent of Bob Major in 1963 was also in part due to the composition provided by Ken, once again an extension of a simple extent of Bob Minor. The band knew that in the event of illness, the pea! could easily be brought round truthfully from any position in a very short time and therefore at least something would be achieved. A safety net not often available to those who would attempt their own particular Everest. Ken had scored a good number of peals on handbells and those at 52, Wellington Road, were always followed by one of Mary's sumptuous suppers. It was the handbell ringing band which carefully and generously ensured that Ken was able to ring at least one peal in each of his later years. In retirement Ken and Mary were able to devote time to Helen and Philip, enjoying the delights of grandchildren. Dunham Hall, acquired by the National Trust in 1981, was opened to the public, so together Ken and Mary worked regularly as room stewards and assisted with very necessary fund raising. Ken began the arrangement for school visits to the Hall enabling the children to experience the living history of the Hall, taking himself the role of butler to the Victorian Lord Stamford. So much accomplished in a life so fully lived - and all this focused firmly on his Lord and Maker. This church has been for Ken and Mary the place of their devotion to their Saviour, the inspiration for their daily lives and their consolation along life's way. Ken has served here as Warden, PCC Secretary and Treasurer. More than one Bishop would have wished to close this huge parish church, but they reckoned without the determination of Ken Lewis. Ken has fought to keep alive the church in this place. In very dark days Ken's vision secured a sound financial future for the parish and the faithful have blessed him for his foresight. Throughout his entire life then, Ken's many, many talents and enthusiasms seem daunting to us, but yet there is more: as a boy he had a beautiful soprano voice, as a youth he devoted time to the Rover Scouts and as a young man he took up country dancing. In his working life he served as trustee for a number of local charities and in retirement he became a President of the Altrincham Probus Club. How appropriate that Ken's service to his community and to church bell-ringing was recognised in 1997 by the award of the MBE. For so many of us it has been a great privilege and inspiration to know this most worthy Member of the British Empire. We can truly give thanks for his witness and example. We know, that for Ken, death is not an end and that for him a new life has now begun. We dare not ask that he rest in peace, we know that, on the other side, he will be looking for something to do - some purposeful activity in the company of the faithful. To Mary and her family in their sorrow I say, "Yes, remember Ken, remember him often and remember him with joy". You yourselves have witnessed this long and faithful life, you yourselves have enabled and enriched it. Surely that knowledge will turn your sorrow into joy. BRIAN HARRIS
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