Bob Hardy's Eulogy for Dr. John R. Ketteringham

Some of you will know that I am one of John�s bellringing colleagues so, to the non-ringers here, my apologies if you find some of what I say a bit mystifying.

Church bell ringing formed a major part of John�s life. Even when ill health forced him to give up on the end of a bellrope at the end of the 80's he still kept a very active interest in the world of ringing. The period when I knew him best was when he lived in London and here I can speak with authority. However, for the basic historical details I am indebted to John himself and his foresight in providing an autobiography on his website.

John learned to ring at Alford in 1947 and rang his first peal in 1951 during a 3-month stay in Leicester where ringing at the time was of a very high standard. After short periods in Nottinghamshire then back in Lincolnshire he moved in 1953 to St Albans in Hertfordshire for further studies. This was close enough to London for him to visit regularly and ring with some of the well-known characters there. He clearly made the right impression since in September of that year, at the age of 23, he was made a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths. Whilst in 2015 there are any number of College Youths of that age, that election was a real honour 60 years ago for a provincial ringer whose peal total was barely in double figures and all rung on 6 bells. In fact it is John who I have to thank for my own membership of the College Youths, to which he proposed me in 1969. John was proud of his membership and rang 39 peals for the society, of which he conducted 10.

Following St Albans, the next few years were spent in Lincolnshire and, although John has very little to say about this period, it�s clear he was doing plenty of ringing. Then, in 1963, he moved to London where I can�t imagine it took him long to fit into the ringing scene since, as I just mentioned, he had been a College Youth since 1953. It would take too long to cover all that John did in London but probably his most significant ringing achievement was the establishing of a band at Barnes at the Vicar�s invitation. The other major event in John�s London life was meeting Joan, who he married in 1971. They lived at first in Wimbledon but in 1972 moved to Worcester where he soon became involved in the local ringing scene, becoming Branch Secretary and editor of the Branch magazine.

Finally, in 1976, the opportunity came to return to his native Lincolnshire. Despite needing major heart surgery in 1992, the list of John�s activities while living in Lincoln is formidable. Among many, many other things; he served as Peal Secretary to the Lincoln Guild, and President of its Central Branch; he was invited to join the Redundant Churches Uses Committee; he published a number of books including a history of Lincoln Cathedral�s bells and ringers and his two volumes of A Lincolnshire Hotch Potch which are a miscellany of facts about the county�s traditions, history and people. And it was also during this period that he gained his BA and MA from the Open University and then his doctorate from my own alma mater, Leicester University.

And so to my personal memories. I can�t remember exactly when and where I met John - it�s over 50 years now - but I guess it was 1964 since my first peal with him was that year. Over the next nearly 10 years, before he moved to Worcester, I rang a lot with him, particularly evening peals (and lost peals!) at Tottenham in North London and Isleworth on the Thames.

First there was John the organiser. If I may quote John himself : For the greater part of my ringing career I have been an arranger of tours, peals and the like. This can be a bit of a strain but it did enable me to decide what to ring and where to go! This is one aspect I do remember since someone (not a ringer) re-shaped the back of my car on one of John�s tours. He used to complain sometimes that other people always left him to do all the hard work. I think part of the truth was that nobody really dared step in and appear to be treading on his organisational toes. With some 270 or so of his 1050 peals rung during this period I think I can see their point!

Then there was John the composer. There are 128 peal compositions by John listed in Don Morrison�s on-line collection. These were all produced the hard way with pencil and paper - no computers in the 1960s - and I don�t recall any one ever being found false, a distinction shared with no less a figure than Albert Pitman. I remember John explaining to me how to work out the falseness of a method and indeed in 1964 the RW published an article by him on that subject. His compositions remain popular today. Searching online I found around 120 peals rung since 2000 using one of his.

There was John the artist, a talent I believe Stephen will also be mentioning. I love calligraphy but am not good at it and I�m certainly no artist despite much artistic ability elswhere in my family. So when John showed me his handwritten pealbook I was amazed. I don�t know how long he kept it up but the early book I saw was most beautifully decorated in colour with all kinds of plant and floral motifs. What many of you here may not know is that John�s studies in St Albans were at Oaklands agricultural college so he was no ignoramus about the plant world.

Finally the man known to many ringers as Tokyo Joe or, sometimes, TJ. It wasn�t until Joan asked me to tell her about this nickname of John�s, whose story she did not know, that I felt it would be appropriate to mention it today, with Joan�s approval. It was, after all, the result of a story told by John against himself that led to the name.

As I understand things, John was travelling on the London underground when he was approached by one of a group of men who spoke to him in a foreign language. John did not understand and was puzzled. The man immediately apologised and explained that he had thought John was from the same island as himself and his friends and this was on account of the rather distinctive shape of John�s head which was, apparently, a characteristic feature of the people of this island. I believe the island was Tristan da Cunha, whose whole population was evacuated in 1961 following a devastating volcanic eruption. John subsequently related this story to a well-known London ringer who I�m told was the late Wilfred Williams, a monosyllabic Welshman with a rather sharp sense of humour. And thus the name was coined.

John took this all in good part and in a way had the last laugh by later ringing a peal of a method named Tee Jay Surprise Major. There was also a peal of Tokyo Surprise Minor rung for John�s wedding.

There are other memories. A pub crawl in London�s West End with a couple of other ringers. Somewhere near Leicester Square we were approached by a young lady offering us "personal services". After a short conversation during which the offer was declined, we discovered John had vanished. A worrying few moments ensued until we realised he had escaped to what he regarded as the relative safety of the opposite side of the road. Then there was the weekend he stayed with me for a peal in Birmingham during my post-grad year there. Panic set in when he discovered he had lost his Jaeger Le Coultre self-winding watch. Luckily it turned up later on the floor of my bedsit and I was able to return it to him in due course having carefully remembered to give it a shake every day to keep it going. Finally a peal attempt at St Stephen�s, St Albans, during which the wooden spire was struck by lightning and we were showered in sparks. John was out of the tower before I had the chance to say, quite superfluously, "Stand!" Luckily the only casualty, apart from the peal, was the church clock which stopped dead and was out of action for months.

I could ramble on about things like this for a long time but I hope I�ve given you a flavour of John�s ringing life and achievements as well as the man I knew personally. May he rest in peace.

Bob Hardy