Arthur Gardner
– Renaissance Man extraordinaire

In the words of a close friend, Arthur Gardner was simply one of the good men in life. He got stuck in! He got involved! He believed that we should all contribute to the community of which we are a part. He had a sharp and questioning mind. To Arthur everything was worthy of interest and investigation and he enjoyed sharing his knowledge. He was courageous; he was without inhibition; he was a true Renaissance Man in the fullest sense of the term.

It was my privilege to work with Arthur on the editing and production of the later Heritage Lottery walks leaflets and it was great fun. His incisive mind, his dry sense of humour and his wide ranging collection of so many facts, whether important ones or simply ridiculous ones, made our editing sessions a real delight.

Looking back

But let’s take a look backwards, beyond the Arthur we all knew and loved and perhaps we can see other aspects of this clever and talented man.

The youngest of four children, Arthur was born, at home, in the small mining village of Delves Lane, near Consett in County Durham on 3 March 1943. By the time Arthur was about eight, already equipped with his shock of bright red hair and his well-known cheeky grin, his brother Norman and sisters Amy and Sheila had already left home but they all recall that Arthur enjoyed a very happy childhood being cared for by his mother, whom he called ‘mam’, and who, in turn, was cared for by Arthur in her later years.

After Consett Grammar School, Arthur went up to Hull University in 1961. He had applied first to do zoology but found his qualifications and interests did not suit. At University they suggested he try the Psychology Department because, as he recalled, they told him ‘they do have odd people there’, and, by his own admission, he fitted in. Arthur considered a PhD, but, after graduating in 1964, he opted to join the scientific civil service as an occupational psychologist, working mainly with the Royal Navy.

His love of poetry and words was one of the great influences in Arthur’s life. He met Gill at a poetry club in Richmond and they married in 1966. They lived most of their early married lives in and around Teddington and Hampton in West London, but also spent three years living the ‘good life’ in Willingham, near Cambridge, in a run-down house with a wild garden where their three children, Ben, Jess and Josh, ran barefoot amongst the chickens. It was here that gardening and growing vegetables really took hold for Arthur, a skill he inherited from his green fingered mother.

Think of it as a garden

In 1983 there was the opportunity to leave London again for the countryside, this time further north in Leicestershire where the family moved in to The Willows, at 95 Cotes Road in Barrowupon-Soar. On completion day of the sale, Arthur and Gill took down the fence that separated the formal garden from the two and a half acre horse field.

‘Think of it as a garden’, Gill told him, and he certainly did.

Hundreds of English trees – oaks, birches, dogwoods, willows – were delivered under a council planting scheme on Arthur’s 41st birthday in 1984. Thereafter, year on year, the garden took shape, with much encouragement from the family boxer dog, Fred who could always be found playing somewhere near Arthur.

In career terms, Arthur’s move from London involved a secondment to Loughborough University to write a handbook on the human factors in computer systems. He might have returned afterwards to Admiralty Arch in London, but the family had by then made a new life in Barrow. He resigned the Civil Service and was given a one-year contract by the University and £1000 cut in salary. The date, as Arthur liked to recall, was April 1st. He then had 11 successive one year contracts at the University.

In 2003, Gill was diagnosed with cancer and Arthur took early retirement and nursed her until her death in December of that year. By this time, he had also become ‘Grampy’ to Josh and Lorraine’s first two children, Reiss and Harvey, and later to Lesley, Ben and Jo’s daughter.

Retirement turned out to be one of the most active times of Arthur’s life. In 2004, much to his own joy and wonder, he met again and fell in love with Julie, an old village friend. They were married amongst friends and family on 21st March 2005. For Julie, Arthur was ‘her knight in shining armour’ and living together the house was once more full of laughter.

Community participation was an immensely important part of Arthur’s life in Barrow, with the Local Studies Society, Labour Party, Community Association, and the WEA. Retirement again brought new opportunities. He was so pleased to become Barrow’s first Heritage Warden, then Chair of the Village Plan working party and, through the results of that work, he led a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund that has proudly delivered several new projects for the village, including new publications and a vibrant new heritage website. Part of his legacy was to leave things in such a way that others could continue his work.

Arthur was diagnosed with Motoreurone Disease in late 2007. Visits from friends, his children, grand-children and step-children, as well as the care of the nursing and GP community all helped to raise his spirits – though in truth it was more often the other way round, with Arthur making his visitors smile. He always found the right thing to say. His last years showed such promise with Julie and she was a constant companion in those last six months. Through the sadness, they made this a loving time together, with courage, laughter and tenderness. In his own words he would have liked another 20 odd years to share.

Arthur attended an Arvon residential poetry course in 2001 and friends and fellow poets who first met Arthur on this course had kept in touch, exchanging poems and comments. As soon as they heard about his illness, after the initial shock, they decided they must do something for the MND Association. A plea was sent out to poets all across the UK – no payment was promised – just the opportunity to raise money for MND in Arthur’s memory. The response was overwhelming – the poetry poured in; the publishers gave permission and waived fees and the print run was funded by Arthur, and the resulting book is a tribute to the love and affection in which he was held by his fellow poets.

Without people like Arthur, enthusiasts with a genius for encouraging and enabling others to do better than their best, where would this country be? Arthur was a generator, a motivator, a facilitator and… more than all this… an all-round lovely, loving and lovable human being - in truth he was … “A parfait gentil knight”.

To close this article I have chosen the poem written by Arthur, which was included in the “Lifemarks” poetry collection.

Jan Hind