Tom Smith
1923-2005

Eulogy by Peter Gammond at Woking, 12 October 2005.

I am pleased and honoured that I have been asked to say a few brief words today in memory of Tom. It gives me a chance to thank him and Yvonne for the many years of enjoyment and laughter that we had together. Life involves many twists and coincidences and I was strangely caught up in Tom's life without actually knowing it for quite a while.

Tom was born in Dover in 1923 and went to school there. On the outbreak of war in 1939 Tom came with his family to London to get away from the front line - a real case of 'out of the frying pan'. Tom was one of the many young men who had no time to establish a career before he was called up in 1941.

The story was repeated, as it was for many, when I went into the army in 1942 and eventually found myself setting off for the Far East to join a tank regiment - the 25th Dragoons on the south-east coast of India ready to go and relieve other units of the 25th Dragoons who were already in Burma. Among them, as I now know, was Sergeant Tom Smith. For three months his unit had been surrounded by the Japanese and for a time he was presumed missing. Fortunately the Japanese war ended as we were about to embark and my squadron stayed in India; while Tom got himself transferred to ENSA before going back to civvy street where he set out to make a career in show business. He appeared with his partner Mark Primak at various venues including Collin's Music Hall in Islington and The Bedford in Camden Town. He met Yvonne in at a dance club and they were married in 1953.

In my last months in India one of my pleasanter duties was to produce the annual regimental concert party, being warned however, that I would have little hope of matching the marvellous show that had been produced previously by one Tom Smith. That be as it may; on an eventful day in the 60s, (by another coincidence Tom and Yvonne had moved to Laleham in 1961; we had moved to Shepperton in 1960), I was at last introduced to Tom Smith at a garden party and we got to talking about the war. We were both astonished to find that we had been in the same regiment and I could only say "You're not the Tom Smith I had to follow".

I am sure that Tom would have liked a stage career but as it was he decided to play safe and pursued a varied and successful life in the commercial world, at one time as a salesman for Allied Iron Foundries in Staines and ending his working days with what was then Shell Mex /BP. He indulged his theatrical leanings by becoming a member of the Laleham Players.

Most local people will probably remember him in the various roles he played in his spare time and his retirement. He was always a willing helper. He was active in many social fields; he was with the Citizen's Advice Bureau for several years, Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of the Aberfeldy Committee, read for the Talking News; and was a dedicated Freemason. Our mutual friend Bryan Corrie persuaded him to join Rotary and he was immediately dragooned [25th of course] into appearing in the Olde Tyme Music Hall which the Shepperton Club successfully produced for many years. This became an independent group called the Freewheelers, which rehearsed a new show every year and then performed it several times for various charities.

So now, here I was producing a show with the Tom Smith as one of its stars. Yvonne was another. Tom was our vital and important Chairman - and how really good he was at it. With his height and rugged good looks, a sort of cross between Leonard Bemstein and Waiter Matthau, he was able to hold an audience in his hand. "We were expecting a splendid audience here tonight", he would say, "so when they arrive you lot will have to go". He was a great singer of a comic song; and a natural comedian, his skill at telling a joke enhanced by his ability to adopt an accurate accent, Irish, Jewish, Indian - anything required. Some of his jokes are for ever imprinted on my mind. I'd like to tell you the one about the Swiss Red Cross (but I mustn't) and NO.15 was always a firm favourite with everyone.

He was a naturally funny man with a serious side. He was a keen book-collector and reader; he was an enthusiastic lover of both classical and popular music, particularly jazz; and how he loved a heated discussion on any subject. He was a dedicated stirrer-up; always pretending to be the uninformed party - which he certainly wasn't. He was a lovely and likeable man, a happily married man, a family man with a rewardingly close family. We shall never forget him.