The funeral of founding member of the Geezers Charlie Wiggins took place on Friday 12th January.
The members of the Geezers Club were asked by Charlie’s family to be with them to say goodbye to a well liked and very funny man.
Our header photo shows Charlie Wiggins (L), Don Tomlin and Ray Gipson on a day out with the Any Old Iron Elderly West Ham Supporters Project
It’s never easy saying goodbye to a Geezer like Charlie but we found it helped to remember the great if rather random conversations or semi arguments we all had with him.
Roy and Joy Feltwell spent a lot of time with Charlie and his family, it was Joy who supplied the picture of Charlie in his Henry the eighth costume.
Charlie’s son Lee did a wonderful job of reading out his tribute to Charlie:
In practically every picture you see of Charlie he’s laughing with family and friends who he loved and obviously loved him in return.
The Geezers thank Charlie’s family for asking us to attend and for the wake in The Palm Tree that Charlie would have said was a proper wake.
God bless Charlie
The Geezers
About Charlie Wiggins:
Charlie was born in 1938 and lived in Cadogan Terrace. His father was a plumber and his mother a machinist in the rag trade. The family moved into the newly built Kingsmead Estate, Homerton in 1939.
His father refused to allow him to be evacuated. He went to Mandeville Street School in Clapton.
Charlie did his National Service in Malaya from 1957-8, in the company of quite a lot of local lads.
Charlie learnt the trade of a butcher and remained a butcher all his working life.
He married in 1959, and got his first council flat on the Monteith Estate, Old Ford. Sadly his first wife died of breast cancer, leaving him to bring up his three children. Charlie remarried in 1989.
The audio recordings of Charlie were made in April 2018 by Alan Tucker.