WELL-KNOWN local shopkeeper Howard Perry, of HT Perry & Son & Grand-daughter, in Fore Street. Wellington, has died at the age of 95.

His son Michael, who was born in Portsmouth but has spent much of his life in Wellington, has paid this tribute to his father, who was born on July 14, 1922, and died last Thursday.

One Saturday evening in July 1992 Howard Perry and his wife, Dot, were taken by his brother-in-law, Crofton Redstone, and wife, Margaret, for a quiet drink at Fishponds Hotel, near Sheldon, only to find that a surprise 70th birthday party was waiting for him.

As well as friends and relations, a contingent of staff from his shop were there and as a present they gave him a set of luggage. If this was meant as a gentle hint that he could now take things easier it had little effect.

True, the following Monday, Howard took the day off, but he was back on the Tuesday and remained an active partner in the business for the next 20 years.

He did gradually reduce his hours and eventually became the shop ‘delivery boy’ often to be seen driving his little white pick-up van around town.

He was born at 3 Garden Terrace, Tone, and was the youngest of four children of Florrie (née Harcombe) and Harry Perry, who worked all his life in the Dye Works at Fox Bros.

Howard’s middle name, Thomas, was a tribute to his father’s brother who had been killed in the Great Waste of Life, the First World War.

Howard grew up in Tonedale and it seems remarkable now that so many things we now take for granted did not exist then. No computers or mobiles, obviously, no television, hardly any radio even, as electricity had only just arrived. Few cars, though he did manage to be run over by the local doctor on one occasion. Aircraft were a novelty and Christmas presents were a bag of nuts and an orange.

He went to Tonedale School and then Coram’s Lane Boys School as ‘Tommy’ Tucker before going on to Courtland Road School, which he left at 14. Like many boys from a less well off background the education there tended to emphasise practical subjects and he soon became interested in woodwork. He was intent on becoming a carpenter but soon after he had left school his father returned home one evening and threw him some papers and said: “You start as an apprentice painter and decorator with Jimmy Jordan on Monday”. He never looked back.

At a Christmas dance in Nynehead village hall in 1939 he met Betty Ireson, who was working as a children’s nurse for the Watson Family at Bickley Farm – now Nynehead Fruit Farm – in the village. They became engaged 18 months later.

Howard was called up in 1941 but, remarkably, only passed his medical examination as grade 3. He spent the Second World War in the Home Guard and working in a Hawker Siddley factory.

He married Betty in 1942 and after the war they moved to Betty’s home town, Portsmouth, where their son, Michael, was born in 1946. Howard worked for a building company, J Morey & Sons, as a painter.

He left in 1949 to join his cousin, Bill Harcombe, in Wellington to become Harcombe & Perry. Besides working as painters and decorators they opened a shop at 5 Cornhill – now King’s Cycles – selling paint, wallpaper and sundries.

The partnership was dissolved in 1959 and times were hard for a while but then Howard spotted an advertisement in the WWN asking for a manager to run a paint shop in Fore Street. He knew this could only be Rowlands at number 29 and, since he did not have a car at the time, got on his bike and cycled to Charlie Rowland’s house at the top of White Ball Hill. He announced that he was not interested in the manager’s job but would like to buy the business. He claimed later that as he said this he noticed, over Charlie’s shoulder, that Mrs Rowland’s eyes lit up with the idea.

Charlie must have been persuaded too because not only did he agree to sell the shop but lent Howard money to do so. And so the business which turned into H T Perry & Son & Grand-daughter was born.

Betty ran the shop for many years and Howard said he always preferred to be out decorating but eventually the business grew to such an extent that he had to work in the shop full time.

In 1970 they bought a bungalow in a new development at Beech Hill, where Howard lived until last year. Mike joined the family business in 1973. Betty, who had been a smoker all her life, died of throat cancer in 1983.

Working six days a week curtailed Howard’s leisure activities but he was a keen skittler and played for Scuppas in the Ex-Services League.

In 1984 Howard met and married Dorothy Richards (née Thorne) whom he had known when they had grown up together in Tonedale. Unhappily, the marriage ended in divorce in 2015. Dorothy died in 2017.

Friends and customers who knew Howard Perry are welcome to sign a Book of Remembrance in Perry’s shop.