Gordon Collier

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Gordon Collier

Post by MichaelDay »

Some sad news that popular Oxfordshire postcard dealer Gordon Collier passed away on Thursday (31st Jan) following illness.

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Re: Gordon Collier

Post by MichaelDay »

Gordon's funeral will be at St.Peter & St Paul Church, Wantage.
Feb 14th at 11am

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Re: Gordon Collier

Post by postcard.co.uk »

From Jonathan Edwards....

Hi everyone

I am so sorry that you weren't able to join us for Gordon's funeral yesterday. Gordon meant a lot to all of us and it was brilliant to see the postcard trade so well represented. It was a sad occasion but the funeral service was sensitively led by Father Dominic Keech and there were plenty of moments of humour. As his brother said to me earlier today - Gordon would have looked down and smiled!

The service was held in the parish church right in the centre of lovely old Wantage. It was the church where Gordon had been baptized. His brother, Michael, gave a superb tribute on behalf of the family which said much about Gordon's cheerfulness and generosity. And then I spoke, as Gordon had requested, on behalf of his postcard dealing family. I have attached that tribute.

I am grateful to many people who offered me anecodotes and reflections. I obviously wasn't able to use them all in my tribute, but I hope that my words were a faithful reflection of all that was said.

At times like this we come to realize that there is much more to postcard dealing than postcards. The relationships that have been established over the years are solid and deeply important.

I'm sure I'll see many of you at Shepton next week.

Yours ever,

Jonathan

GORDON COLLIER – A TRIBUTE

It is my privilege to speak as a friend who knew Gordon within the postcard trade. I, like Gordon, have been a collector most of my life and although I have known Gordon for many years I have got to know him very much better since moving into this area. Both Gordon and I were at the Cheltenham Postcard Fair just after Christmas. We normally had good banter and Gordon was always cheerful in his Gordon way. However, that day was different. He looked desperately ill and was shaking and his first words to me were unusually serious. He asked me to be involved in his funeral service. I looked at him seriously in return and told him that I would be honoured to put his funeral in my diary for 30 years time ... and in the meantime he needed to get to hospital the following Monday and let the NHS sort him out. Ill as he clearly was, probably none of us imagined that his end was so close.

I speak on behalf of his many friends within the postcard trade to say that we will greatly miss Gordon and many dealers have written to me with memories and reflections which I will seek to reflect in what I say. Few people could match Gordon’s enthusiasm for the hobby. One dealer refers to his omnipresence at Postcard Fairs! Not only was he always there but his prodigiously early arrival at Fairs in his legendary Robin Reliant three wheeler earned him a distinctive reputation. One dealer comments that we will miss the sight of the 3 wheeler arriving at a fair, to disgorge this cheerful, rotund Berkshire boy who didn’t so much seem to drive it as wear it!

His eagerness for looking through dealers’ new stock boxes was famous. He wanted to be there first because, before anything else, he didn’t want to miss the possibility of finding a new wonderful Berkshire card. A dealer recalled the day when he found Gordon sleeping in the entrance porch of a Fair venue. Gordon’s iconic vehicle had broken down and not wanting to miss the event he had arrived by train the night before and spent the night in the porch. When Gordon made a discovery he would celebrate it and normally give the background to the printer or the printing of the card. His special delight was to look through other dealers’ unidentified sections and time and again Gordon’s expert knowledge enabled him to make exciting discoveries. There was nothing worth knowing that Gordon didn’t know about Berkshire postcards. As another dealer told me, his postcards were his babies which he cherished.

Postcards were a crucial part of Gordon’s life and for the past 30 years he has been a familiar and welcome face at Postcard Fairs. It was always clear that Gordon was first of all a passionate collector. Although he was a respected and regular dealer one sensed that his real pleasure in selling postcards was that it enabled him to buy more real photographic views of what we might call Greater Berkshire. Gordon was very much a traditionalist and he never really reconciled himself to the slimming down of Berkshire, and especially not to the fact that in 1972 his beloved Wantage was moved from Berkshire into Oxfordshire – of all places!
Amidst all the many tributes that I have heard to Gordon’s life one word shines through. He was a gentleman. And he was a gentleman in every sense of that word – he was always courteous, reliable and gentle. We will always remember his passionate interest in postcards but more importantly we will remember his friendship and his unfailing kindness and good humour. We thank God for Gordon. Our lives were made richer through his life and we offer to his family our love and our prayers.

Jonathan Edwards - February 14th 2013

Image

Mike Collier
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Re: Gordon Collier

Post by Mike Collier »

Hello everyone - just wanted to add my own, brief word (as Gordon's brother) to say thank-you to all those who either attended the funeral on the 14th, who have contacted me in person (thanks to Richard Boddington's kindness in putting me in touch with Gordon's friends and contemporaries) or who have sent 'In Sympathy' cards to Gordon's home - my sister and I are both very grateful and touched by your kind words and thoughts.

My brother was a 'one off' - as a brother he could be frustrating and unyieldingly stubborn at times, but at all times kind, gentle, generous and loving. My 2 stepsons - who only came into Gordon's life in 1998 - were very, very fond of him. And despite them being teenages when they DID first meet Gordon, he was never anything but 'cool' in their eyes, given that he was so different to anyone else they had ever met!

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart

Mike

p.s. does anyone want to buy a green 3-wheeled car? :)

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