Mervyn Butteriss (22 Feb 1941 - 3 Oct 2025)

In loving memory of Mervyn Butteriss who sadly passed away on 3rd October 2025

Dad was born in Wales in Neath, South Wales and was immensely proud to be Welsh. As he used to highlight to his sisters Margaret and Eileen he was more Welsh than they were as he was the only one born in Wales. My grandparents William and Iris were living on and off for a number of years during the war at my nan’s parents’ house in Alexander Road, Rhyddings, Neath. It was a house that housed many members of the family and friends over the years especially during the war including evacuees from London with only an outside toilet! My great grandmother’s brother Thomas who never married also lived with them and he was a local police officer.

During February 1941, my nan was staying with her parents to get away from the bombings in Greenwich, London, of which there were many. Unfortunately, in 1941 there were many air raids and heavy bombings during the ‘Blitz’ period in the area of Neath including Swansea, Port Talbot, and Cadoxton - the next village along to Rhyddings - which extended into May 1941 – the target being the refinery. On 22nd February 1941 an ambulance was called to take my nan to the hospital but they didn’t make it into the Penrhiwtyn Infirmary latterly known as Neath General Hospital due to the bombings with the ambulance stalling in the drive up to the hospital so a doctor came out and delivered dad into the world – he was just 4lbs. I remember my nan telling me that she was in a corridor and there was a shortage of cutlery during her stay as many casualties from the Blitz were being brought in from all around the area. Auntie Eileen has memories of this time – see below.

Unfortunately, dad suffered with ill health from an early age with chest infections and he had asthma throughout his life into adulthood but he never let it get him down and always had a positive outlook on life.
During the war, my grandparents had their flat opposite the Greenwich Naval College bombed out with my granddad surviving the blast in the basement but came running out wrapped in a pink eiderdown which is a well told family story! As with many people they lost everything. The family eventually returned to Greenwich from Wales living in Greenwich Park Street, just around the corner from the Yacht Pub on the River Thames which my grandad was the licensee/proprietor of before the war and after until 1951. He was given the pub at a young age by his mother, Grandma Woolwich - as she was known, and she owned many properties in the area.

Dad attended Meridian Primary School previously known as Old Woolwich Road School. Margaret has memories of this time – see below.

Dad was a choir boy at Christ Church just up the road on Trafalgar Road and also joined The Church Lad’s Brigade and played the bugle.

Dad went to secondary school at Greenwich Park Central and when he left school he worked at several jobs initially including a projectionist in a cinema briefly and as a crane drive down near the Deptford Creek near Greenwich, which was the turning point for his career in engineering.

Dad then went on to work for Cementation Company on the tools initially. He stayed with Cementation for over 40 years until his retirement later becoming Cementation Skanska. His work involved specialist piling and ground engineering on huge projects all over the country. In the early days before his supervisor role, I remember his van full to the brim with every tool you could think of but much bigger, as they were for the big plant machinery on sites. I went to work with him once and sat in one of the cranes with him. He used to come home in his overalls covered in diesel with his face blackened and he would head straight to the bathroom to have a bath.

Dad worked on projects such as the M4, Harrods, Port Talbot, Eastbourne in 1993, Dartford Crossing, Hams Hall, Ebbs Fleet, many projects in London and Wales and his last project being Stratford Box. He also travelled further afield sometimes and I remember him telling me about one particular business trip to Italy and the amazing food he had there.

In 2005 dad won the Innovate 2005 Competition for his CFA Spoil Guard innovation and was awarded a certificate that he was enormously proud of along. Also, in 2005 dad attended a Long Service Award Dinner for his 40 years of service on 9th June 2005 and received a certificate from the Chief Executive which he was also very proud of also, but highlighted the fact that he had actually worked for the company for quite a few years more than that but due to the loss of records in the early days, his official start date was not recorded correctly.

My grandparents continued to live in Greenwich for many years and had a caravan in Reculver where I remember spending quite a few holidays in the caravan in my early years. On one particular holiday, dad had gone to the site shop to buy a newspaper and returned to the caravan terribly upset – it had been announced that Elvis Presley had died. Dad liked Elvis very much and watched all of his films.
In October 1967 dad bought our family home in Combedale Road, Greenwich where he lived for 52 years. He moved to Speldhurst in 2019 to be close to my family and where he was very happy in his new home for just over 5 years.

Throughout his life dad travelled to many countries including trips to Kenya with me, many trips to Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and during my time living in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. He also enjoyed going on cruises in his later working life and early retirement years.

During dad’s time in Speldhurst, he very much enjoyed walking down the road to the George & Dragon pub where he would get a drink and read the paper. We often ate there as a family which he really liked and spent quite a few birthday celebrations there. One time not long after dad had moved to Speldhurst my family and I walked round to see him with our dog Bella, but he wasn’t at home so we asked Bella to ‘find grandad’ and she lead us straight to the George & Dragon where we found him happily enjoying a pint.

After the wave of Covid when life was starting to slowly resume some normality, Auntie Margaret would come and stay with dad and we would organise a car to take them out for the day where they enjoyed trips with my mum also to Whitstable, Reculver, Eastbourne, the South Downs, Pevensey and surrounding areas of Kent. They enjoyed lunches out including afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, fresh oysters in Whitstable which dad loved and even a vineyard in Kent with Auntie Margaret which she remembers well - the bottle of wine!

Dad was eventually diagnosed with Dementia/Alzheimer’s sadly in his later years and although he had slowly declined considerably over the past couple of years with his communication becoming quite limited, he still knew all his family, including Bella our dog. Last year after surviving Sepsis, dad was eventually moved to Cornford Nursing Home where he was very happy in the last year or so of his life being so well cared for by the amazing staff and who became like an extended family. We will always be so grateful for all the amazing care and support that dad received during his time at Cornford House. Dad still very much maintained his character and sense of humour never losing the core of his personality and that cheeky glint in his eyes right to the end.

Margaret’s Memories
Mervyn was born in Wales and moved to Greenwich, London with the family in 1945. Our father was the licensee of a pub on the river called The Yacht. We lived in a house near the pub, Mervyn remembered as a little boy helping dad in the pub cellar and enjoying this experience. On one occasion the river flooded into the cellar and dad’s photo appeared in the local paper showing him in the cellar surrounded by floating beer barrels.

Mervyn suffered all his life from Asthma but did not let that stop him from being very much one of the boys. There were a number of children in our street who attended the local primary school and played together. Mervyn was always in the centre of what was going on and as a result suffered several accidents. I remember him climbing up to the top of the shed in the school playground and falling off and another time playing in the church yard with his friends, receiving a knock on the head with a stone thrown by another boy and ending up in hospital for a week – he had a scar on his forehead. Another time when he was a little boy Mum had allowed him to play in the street but was alerted by a neighbour that he was in Woolwich going backwards and forwards on the Woolwich ferry. She had to get a bus to Woolwich to get him back. We never found out how he got there.

My grandmother gave each of her six children a television so that they could watch the Queen’s Coronation. We were the only family in the neighbourhood to own a television and as a result were extremely popular. It was common for the boys who lived next door to pretend their mother was not in so that they could come in to watch our TV. Our relatives in Wales came to stay with us for the Coronation. We had a big street party for the children to celebrate the occasion, and people were popping in and out of our house to watch it on TV. (There is a photo of the children at the street party including Mervyn and myself and our two Welsh cousins).
We spent most of our school holidays in Wales staying with our grandparents and playing with our cousins. We were allowed to go into the woods to play but we were warned by my Auntie not to go to the river which was really a tributary of the main river. It was shallow with stepping stones and little islands. Needless to say, we always headed straight for the river and had great fun lighting little fires and playing in the water. On another occasion we travelled to Wales on the train. Mervyn headed off down the train corridor and didn’t come back so Mum went in search of him and discovered a desperate Clergyman standing outside the toilet pleading with Mervyn to come out. Mum soon got him out and the clergyman was rescued.

Eileen’s memories:
Mervyn was born in 1941 the night of the bombings of Swansea and Neath. He was born in an ambulance which had stalled in Neath General Hospital’s drive. The resident Senior Doctor came down the drive to deliver him. He weighed 4lbs and was premature. Later, mum returned to London where Mervyn caught Whooping Cough. I was taken at 3 years old to visit him in Dartford Chest Hospital where he was brough out and laid on a blanket on the lawn to get fresh air. He was in hospital for 9 months. He went on to have many chest infections and asthma.

Mervyn’s first day in school I was called to see him and he was sitting on a small chair with his feet up on another chair looking happy and confident - I was 7 years old.

Later in life he resisted going to school and when he left at 15 years old he started trying to look for jobs. He told me that one day he saw a crane in a yard and asked one of the men could he learn to drive it. He went on to learn to drive cranes which lead to a very good career.