Dad.

[mattlad]

I have also posted this in General Boating but for reasons that will become obvious I will also post it here.....

 

Hi folks I just thought I better let you know that my father, David Phillips, passed away this evening after a long illness.

Some of my earliest memories are of boating on a wooden ex Leonard Leighs tug which was the family boat for a time, we sold it while I was still young and although we didn't go on the canals for many years we still maintained a presence on the water with dinghy sailing, "kinky craft" races and...... an old wardrobe! (A story to be told one day.......)

We returned to the canals after a hire boat holiday 21 years ago when we purchased a boat from Les Allen and Sons and fitted it out. We've had many adventures on "Narrowboat May" made many lifelong friends and met many wonderful people.

Dad retired from the motor-trade at the age of 65 in 2002. After 3 years boredom set in and after some wheeling and dealing he formed RN Diesel Engine Company Ltd and set up a production facility in Daventry, continuing production of Russell Newbery engines.

Sadly it was too short a journey as health issues set in but Dad put up a brave fight and was still running the company even after he had had a laryngectomy.

Obviously we sold the company but we managed a few trips on the boat until last year when health issues called time on his boating career. Dad was very pleased that the boat has remained in the family.

I know that many people on this forum won't know my father but I'm sure that there are more than a few who do, and probably quite a few who met him without realizing who he was.

Dad, David Phillips, 24/07/1936 - 24/08/2014 RIP. For too short a time, "Mr Russell Newbery" The cut won't be quite the same!

 

Edited for details and typos.

Edited August 25, 2014 by mattlad

[dave moore]

Matt

 

Please accept my condolences on David's passing. I knew him and your mother well back in the 90s, I was sometimes working at Ashwood in those days, decorating and lettering boats. Your folks were a couple of students on my early painting courses, not long after May was completed.

 

The magneto on our Kelvin was giving problems years ago and it ended up at Daventry under the care of Alastair Denyer. It turned out to be beyond economic repair and I went to collect it. David greeted me warmly and proudly gave me a tour of the premises, the finer points falling on my non engineering deaf ears! I saw him last at Crick several years ago, not long after initial surgery I think,where he remained upbeat, happy to promote the RN product.

My abiding memory is of a determined and kind character on the boating scene. A sad loss indeed, my sympathies to all the family.

 

Dave