Tribute by Claudette Tinsley (Granddaughter) It means a lot to me today to be able to speak about my grandfather and of his two grandchildren...I was his favourite. Grandpa was a very considerate man, thoughtful, always kind, always loving and ever cheerful. He was also a clever man, and to my brother and I, he always seemed to be a man who knew everything. Perhaps it was because of his ability to quote latin at the drop of a hat, or because he seemed to know the all the answers to the crosswords – he'd still let us have a go at the answers but I'm sure he had them all marked down. He was also quick to find out which nurses at the hospital could speak Urdu, and being such an amiable chap, he was fast in making friends and soon became a favourite. My grandfather was a wonderful storyteller. He had humorous anecdotes for all sorts of moments – such as the time when his mother-in-law got stuck up the Suez Canal, not just once, but on three separate occasions, or of when he was meeting my grandmother Shirley at Liverpool docks when she arrived in England without ever having owned a passport and finding she needed one to enter the country. Grandpa, being the resourceful chap, managed to wrangle his way on board only to find she had already made it off and now it was he himself on board without a passport. He also had a few sayings that he was particularly fond of, one being that the Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery share the same motto – Ubique. Grandpa would take great delight in telling us that, for the Sappers, it meant 'Everywhere' and for the Royal Artillery, it meant 'All over the place'. This puts in mind an informal Tinsley family motto that grandpa would say “You can't tell a Tinsley anything” - and considering the spin you can place on a motto, I'm not sure if that means we're a very knowledgable lot or just very stubborn. Perhaps a bit of both. Grandpa was an affectionate and generous man with a keen wit. Leading a quiet but fulfilled life, he was a very contented individual. I only knew him for a third of his life, there's a whole two-thirds of a man I didn't get to witness but I am sure there are many of you here today who have a tale or two to tell. My father remembers his parents as quite the party animals, rolling up the carpets, kicking their knees up whilst in fancy dress. But my time with grandpa, though in his quieter, less derring-do years was no less full of character and Tinsley humour. There are not many people you can call 'The very best of men' but my grandpa was certainly one of them.