William Edgar Sherratt (11 Jan 1934 - 16 Apr 2019)

In loving memory of William Edgar Sherratt who sadly passed away on 16th April 2019
Sherratt
William Edgar
Passed away peacefully at home on 16th April 2019 aged 85 years.
Loving Husband to Kathleen, Father to Jacqueline, Jennifer, David and Johanna. Grandad and Great grandad.
Williams Funeral will take place at Loughborough Crematorium on Wednesday 8th May at 12.30.Family flowers only. Donations, if desired, will kindly be donated to The Royal British Legion. All enquiries to Shepshed and District funeral service, 31a Belton Street, Shepshed, Le12 9AA Telephone 01509 503234

Bill was born in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1934.

He lost his father aged just 8-years-old and was raised by his mother.

He took his first job aged 13 – delivering bread on a heavy bicycle across the city for a local bakery. It was hard work. But that was something Bill was never afraid of.

At 15 he took up his first ‘proper’ job as an apprentice in a pot bank for ceramics company Johnson’s.

He joined the Royal Navy as a 17-year-old – serving on HMS Algerine (minesweeper); HMS Rattlesnake (minesweeper); HMS Implacable and HMS Sheffield.

Bill described his time in the Navy as the ‘best years of his life’ and often reminisced fondly about times spent in Portsmouth, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus and other ports of call.

Bill was popular with his shipmates.

Not only was he dab hand at catching quantities of mackerel armed with just a line and silver paper, but he was well-known and well-regraded for the ‘stew’ he made when on mess duty.

There was no great secret to the recipe. Bill would throw anything and everything into a single big pot, tun up the heat and stir until done. It never failed to go down well – according to Bill....

Bill served five-and-a-half years in the Royal Navy before being discharged on compassionate grounds. He left the service to return home to Hanley to look after his mother.

The Royal Navy’s loss was Kath’s gain. They met in the summer of 1957 when Bill and a friend took a wrong turn on their motorcycles and ended up in Congleton town centre.

On seeing Kath as he rode past, Bill gave her a cheeky little wink. Kath turned to her friend and said ‘That’s him! That’s who I’m going to marry!’

Kath’s friend told her not to be silly. But Kath was right. Bill doubled back and asked if she’d like to go to the cinema to watch The King And I. And she did.

They were married on 24th December 1959 at St Peter’s Church in Congleton. It was a fruitful union that produced four children – and later five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

It wasn’t until the family moved to Shepshed in the late 1960s that Bill’s alter ego came to prominence.

By day, Bill worked in pharmaceutical research. At night, he became the ‘coupon man’ – building a large round for Vernon’s Pools in Shepshed and surrounding areas.

Many people knew him as the ‘coupon man’. Many people still remember him as the ‘coupon man’ to this day.

Bill always enjoyed meeting and talking to people and the coupon round – built and maintained over many years – gave him the opportunity to do plenty of both. Bill was always happy to have a cup of tea and a chat with long standing customers. Even if that meant leaving his assistants (Kath or one of the children) waiting in the car for up to half-an-hour!

Bill never lacked energy and when he wasn’t working or doing the coupon round, you would find him in the garden or the greenhouse. Bill was a keen gardener. He enjoyed growing things. Flowers, shrubs, vegetables – over the years he tried them all succeeded with many. But one thing you could rely on every year was a good show of red geraniums. They were his favourite.

Bill was a naturally curious and inquisitive man. He liked to know how things work. And why things work the way they do. He was a keen and observant student of the natural world and would often draw your attention to instructive details and insights you might otherwise have missed.

His curiosity extended to world affairs. He read the paper and listened to Radio 4 every day – often into the small hours of the night – keeping abreast of political developments, world events and human folly.

And he didn’t just like to read about or listen to these developments either. He liked to talk about them too. And to debate the issues.

They say you should never talk about politics or religion in polite company. But, polite company or not, politics and religion were two of Bill’s favourite subjects. And he could be relied upon to get stuck into them with great enthusiasm and good humour at any opportunity.

He was a poet too – producing a significant body of work over a period of many years. Much of those poems are now published online (https://sites.google.com/site/britishbillspoetry/) and serve to offer a glimpse into Bill’s rich internal world.

He was also a keen stamp collector – a hobby he maintained and enjoyed from childhood, throughout a long and enjoyable retirement and right up until the end of his life.

His stamp collection is a bit like his life – meticulously well-organized and thoughtfully and patiently put together over many years of diligent effort. Nothing is out of its proper order. Everything is in its proper place – perfectly documented, precisely catalogued and presented ship-shape and Bristol fashion. That’s how Bill liked to do things. That’s how Bill was. In everything he did.