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Patrick Howard |
‘One of the old school... and always a gentleman’
PATRICK Howard, one of 10 sons from a fishing family in County Clare, Ireland, died on New Year’s Eve, aged 75.
He arrived in England as a 15-year-old and found work as a road labourer in Birmingham.
Moving to London in the mid-1950s he was employed by the civil service to work on public buildings and was later awarded a medal for 45 years’ service.
He met Peggy, his wife, at the Buffalo dance hall, now the Electric Ballroom in Camden Town. They were married 54 years ago and brought up six children – Carol, Michael, Tyrone, Cathy, Dolores and Gary, who collectively gave the couple 15 grandchildren.
Better known as Mick to his friends, he worked as bar manager in the evenings and weekends at the Coffee House in Chalton Street, Somers Town, in the 1990s.
His son Tyrone, 48, a service engineer, said: “He was of the old school. He went out when he liked and came in when he liked. He loved a game of cards and a game of pool. There wasn’t a lot left in Ireland for him when he came to England. When we were brought up we had nothing and no one really cared. We just got on with it.”
His father would regularly drink with Mick Murphy, 61, his Somers Town neighbour and a friend of more than 40 years, at their local, The Cock Tavern, in Phoenix Road.
Mr Murphy said: “He was a man of many talents. He could serve behind the bar and take his shots at the pool table at the same time. He was a well-known and well-loved man, easy going, nice and quiet and always a gentleman.”
SARA NEWMAN |
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