TRIBUTE TO KEN FISHER

KEN FISHER
(1929-2010)

Father Owain Mitchell conducted Ken Fisher's funeral service at Woodlands Crematorium, Scunthorpe. Ken, of Central Square, Brigg, was a former town councillor and railway manager.
Born in 1929, Ken’s formative years were spent at Chalk Hill, close to Melton Ross, Kirmington and what is now Humberside Airport. His father died when he was still a youngster, and his mother was left to raise Ken and his three older brothers on her own during the depressed years of the 1930s. Life was hard, demonstrated by the answer Ken always gave when asked which football team he played for as a boy. The answer: Kirmington TIN Dribblers!
Aged 14 he left school and worked on the land before securing a job on the railway. Signalling duties were interrupted, however, by National Service with the Royal Engineers, which took him to hot and sandy Egypt, where he awoke one night to find a scorpion crawling across his chest!
By then he had met the love of his life, Beryl Taylor, of Hawthorn Avenue, and the happy couple came to be married at St John’s Church, Brigg. The first home of their own was a Woodbine Grove prefab, where Ken took great pride in tending the garden.
Sons Nigel and Simon were born during those happy years in the late 1950s, to be joined, in 1966, by daughter Anne-Marie, following the family’s move to a larger council property in Central Square.
A keen member of the National Union of Railwaymen, Ken worked hard to better the lot of his fellow signalmen, and other British Railways employees, in the Scunthorpe and Barnetby areas. And this sense of duty continued when he gained a coveted seat on Brigg Urban District Council – impressing the visiting Edward Dodd, senior man on the Lincolnshire Times newspaper, with his extensive classical music collection and library of books which, Edward wrote, would not have looked out of place in the home of a university professor.
While serving on the UDC, Ken took a particular interest in council housing, Brigg Youth Club and the development of the cattle market.
Despite working very long hours in signalboxes the length and breadth of northern Lincolnshire, he somehow found time for his council and youth club duties, union meetings, woodturning, photography, amateur radio, running a second-hand shop in Bridge Street, tending a neighbour’s extensive vegetable garden, following motor car racing at Cadwell Park and further afield, and gaining the O-levels he never had the chance to obtain earlier in life.
Having been all over the country following Grimsby Town Football Club as a young man, he rekindled his interest in the early 1970s when the Mariners gained promotion, spending many happy Saturdays – often accompanied by his camera – cheering on Lawrie McMenemy’s Mariners at Blundell Park.
About that time, Ken’s railway career branched out when he gained promotion to the supervisory ranks – instructing at Doncaster and then working in Scunthorpe and Immingham as an inspector and then chief inspector, covering a very wide area. However, early retirement meant he did not quite make the milestone of 50 years’ service.
Ken’s retirement allowed him to develop his following of Brigg Town Football Club, spend more time with Beryl and enjoy visits by the next generation of the family – Fishers and Wescotts - as they came along.
He also put his commonsense approach and careful nature with money to very good use on Brigg Town Council. During one debate a female colleague said Coun Fisher was unduly parsimonious with the public purse. She meant it as a rebuke – he smiled and took it as a compliment!
As his deafness increased and the years went by, Ken decided to retire from the Council, but still liked to be kept informed of the debates and decisions.
And so to the final months of his life…
The onset and development of his illness, and its symptoms, were especially difficult for someone used to being so active, and for the family to watch its affect on Ken, particularly in the final weeks. But we all have fond memories of him in his prime – over many years.
Ken worked hard for his family, his employers, his colleagues and his community. Now, at last, he can rest in peace…