Eulogy for the Memorial of John Christopher Wallace |
John Christopher Wallace (Chris) aged 68, died peacefully, on Tuesday 20th October at Chorley Hospital with his son and daughter by his side. He was the son of the late Marion and James Wallace, loving father to Paul and Claire, brother to Ruth and loving Granddad to Benjamin, Alexander, Lucy and Rachel.” So reads a simple and dignified obituary for the attention of the local press and its readers. What the obituary also mentioned was that it was Chris' wish that after his death his body was to be donated to the University of Liverpool for medical research and education. Outside of this brief citation lies a very tender and interesting story of a very caring, gifted and sparky individual. Anecdotes from Chris’ early life are entirely consistent with the man that many of us remember in later life, professionally and masonically. The family lived in Cheadle Hulme until he was about 6 years old, and then moved to Oakwood Drive in Fulwood. Always an active child, he was a member of 1st Broughton Cub and Scout Pack, attending the Scout Jamboree on Moor Park where he camped overnight and paraded along with Scouts from all over the country to Preston North Ends Deepdale ground. 1st Broughton had to wear kilts to represent Scotland! A photograph is not available! Another side of Chris …he and his sister Ruth attended the same primary school, and one time when Ruth asked Chris if he would do her homework, as she was struggling, the story goes that he deliberately did it wrongly! Telling her she should have done it herself! He was a very keen cyclist. With friends, Chris watched his father build a touring bike in their garage at home. John Dempsey recalls that one evening, after school, at the age of about 12, they both cycled to Blackpool (a return trip of about 25 miles) and to prove he had actually been there picked up some sand from the beach and put it in his pockets! More adventurous trips followed as he grew. Chris cycled from Bergen in Norway through Sweden and then Denmark on a new ‘Dawes Galaxy’ paid for by cleaning the poultry sheds After completing his A-levels at Preston Grammar School and leaving with 3 good passes in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Chris initially studied Mechanical Engineering at what was then the Salford College of Advanced Technology (now the University of Salford). He struggled with the split ‘sandwich course’ arrangement and soon left College and took up employment with Burroughs’s Adding Machines. Computers were just beginning to make their way into the workplace, but in the early 1960’s many company’s mechanised accounting records were kept on Burroughs’s machines. They were used for the production of account records, bills, receipts, salaries and wages etc. Every organisation of any size had either a Burroughs or NCR machine and it was Chris’s job to maintain these machines and to programme the bar at the back for the different processes – a time consuming and skilled job. After his promotion to Inspector he was stationed in Leyland as Patrol Inspector, during which time there was a famous incident which brought the town to a standstill. The log book for that day might have read: ‘The Inspector authorised the shut down for more than half a day of over a square mile of the town centre, against a background of fears over security concerns in the wake of IRA bombings. The bomb disposal team from Liverpool was anxiously awaited’ …What might not have been recorded was one possible ending to that statement which could have read …‘to deactivate and detonate a discarded lunch box left on the Police Station steps!’ This did not stop Chris’ further progress to becoming Patrol Inspector at Preston and finishing his career as Station Inspector. According to official documents he joined the police force on 16th July 1962 and retired from the police force on 24th July 1989, aged just 48 - a full 27 years! Not one to be idle in retirement, he joined Fylde Saab in Kirkham a day later as a "driver and car Cleaner", which employment he left on 1991. He followed this to become a part-time Licensing Enforcement Officer for South Ribble Borough Council and finally retired on 30th April 1998. It was at this time in 1998 that Chris’ carefully kept record system shows a determination to sort out his will, his finances and other affairs - such as donating his body to science. As he told his sister Ruth at the time, what he really wanted was to retire and become a "full-time mason". Not surprisingly, Freemasonry featured prominently in his life and for which he gained many friends and much respect, and from which he took great benefit. He enjoyed all aspects that came with membership, from Lodge work to the many social activities. Chris was Initiated into Leyland Lodge in 1970, whose hospitality we enjoy this morning. He was a founder member of The Red Rose of Lancashire Lodge, a Police lodge, and Phoenix Lodge of Installed Masters. He had also held membership of Quintet and Lathom Lodges before he cut back on his range of activities in recent years. He was a member of other Orders: the Royal Arch, the Mark, Royal Ark Mariner and Rose Croix. Chris received Provincial honours first in 1988 as a Provincial Grand Steward. He was appointed a Deputy Director of Ceremonies for the Province in 1994 and served his three years in the Craft and then the Royal Arch, and in 2000 was the Provincial Director of Ceremonies for the Royal Arch Province of West Lancashire, a high and distinguished rank. He is honoured here today by a number of colleagues from the DC’s ‘Mess’, present and past. His work was recognised by Grand Lodge with the conferment of Grand Rank in the Craft in 1998 and in the Royal Arch in 2001. One of the Junior Officers in Chris’ years as a Deputy DC, a Provincial Grand Steward and unremunerated taxi driver, in the person of Peter Taylor, remembers Chris living by the well worn maxim, “Better to be an hour early than a minute late!” They were never late, and never less than an hour early! Chris’ personality was clearly at one with the order, dignity, demeanour and precision required of well conducted Freemasonry, which took to him as much as he took to it. Whichever branch of masonry he entered he was well decorated. He was honoured in the Mark degree with Grand Rank in 2000, and in the Royal Ark Mariner degree with Royal Ark Mariner Provincial Grand Rank in East Lancashire. And in the Rose Croix he was a member of the 30th degree. How will Chris be best remembered? As an attentive and valued companion, Jonne describes Chris as “one of the few true gentlemen, whose like is rare today". It would appear that he taught one of Jonne's dogs to "Sing"! Chris loved to laugh and to make others laugh, and adored comedy and comedians: He loved to drive, and everything about motor cars in every way: also caravanning and watching Grand Prix racing. As a young man he once went on holiday to stay with an Aunt in Devon, hiring a Morris Minor in which he drove some 1500 miles in the week, well before the construction of the M6 and M5. He loved stamp collecting and photographing Royal Mail post boxes, all of which was catalogued in meticulous order, as were his personal affairs, memoirs and memorabilia. He had a fondness for steam trains and enjoyed his gardening, especially of fruit and vegetables. Today we bear tribute to a generous man, full of dignity and pride - a "True Gentleman". But we also identify Chris as a man with a true heart and a sense of duty, evidence of which is seen in his last act and will. The family have received a letter from the University of Liverpool, which states: "I would like to take this opportunity of again expressing our gratitude to your father for his kindness in bequeathing his body in this way, and to yourself for carrying out his wishes. I can assure you that this gesture will provide immeasurable assistance to us in our teaching and research work … It is the ultimate kind and public spirited gesture”. Today, our thoughts and prayers are with sister Ruth, his children Paul and Claire, and Nick and Sarah, grandchildren Lucy, Rachel, Benjamin and Alexander, and Jonne, a much valued companion and friend. We share their sadness, but not in their way, and we must support them in whatever way we can. It has been a privilege to carry out Chris’ wishes, with the family’s great co-operation, and of whom Chris would be very grateful and proud, for their care to all these details – ‘perfect in every particular’, a phrase he would remember well, and by which he strived to live. Chris was certainly one of the kindest men who stepped foot in this building, and one of the most encouraging. You could spend a long time with Chris and not get bored. Not too complex, certainly not shallow, but one of whom it was easy to get rather fond, and rather quickly. He had a quirky if not individual take on life’s trials and responsibilities, and greeted all with a smile and sense of joy. A good man, a good life, who rather liked the last word. So we’ll grant him that one last thing, the words with which he liked to sign off each day: “Another day done,
John Christopher Wallace ‘in memoriam’
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| This article is copyright noted by Revd Graham Halsall and we thank him for allowing us to publish it. MB |
| A news paper article on Chris donating his body to science can be viewed here |
This archive article courtesy of Chris Furmston |
