Graham Bell

Graham spent his early days in Canterbury were he was born, and then Africa and Chichester. He joined the RAF as an engine mechanic. He married Mary in 1967 just before being posted to Aden. After the birth of their daughter Vicky and son Alec Graham decided that service life was not for him. The family moved to Nottinghamshire close to Mary's family. There he worked for Severn Trent Water as a project engineer. After Graham retired they moved to Stubbington, He was very active and enjoyed circle dancing and was a member of the Lee on Solent Tennis club. A competent handyman he joined Fareham Men's Shed in 2017. With his sense of humour and DIY skills he immediately got involved in projects and extending our shed. While taking a break over a cuppa he would tell us about his times in the RAF and Aden. Tea was a very serious issue for Graham and we would often see him heating his cup of water in the microwave as the hot water out of our tea urn was not hot enough to get a good cup of tea!

During covid we kept our shed going with weekly Zoom meetings and a quiz. He did not join the meetings for a couple of weeks and when he did he gave us the fright of our lives waving a heavily bandaged hand up for us to see. He had almost lost 2 fingers using his chop saw. Fortunately the surgeons managed to save one of them! Over the coming weeks as the bandages were removed he would wind us up when giving his score for each round by just holding his hand up and we had to clarify if Graham's score was 4 or 5!

It was very upsetting to see Parkinsons take hold of Graham and it was very hard for him when he could not drive any more, but Mary looked after him well.

It is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to Graham for the last time.

Thanks for the memories Graham, now rest in peace.