JOHN GALVIN Obituary

John Galvin - (1928-2010)

John died on 9th of October 2010, at Chase House, Aresley, from complications following many years of suffering from Diabetes. 

John was born in Mill Road Hospital, Liverpool, on 7/7/1928.  At the start of the war, like most children from the area, he (and his brothers) were evacuated to Llannelly, South Wales.   Like most of the Liverpool group, he came home 6 months later  (There were stories of previous unsuccessful attempts at "running away" back to Liverpool).

He was at the Collegiate from 1941 to 1944, starting in form '3(beta)1'.   In those days, greek letters were used for some class names.  John might be better remembered, by some of his schoolmates, as being one of the IDENTICAL Galvin twins - Frank & John.  They were exact copies of each other.  (Including some of those shared thought processes, that are often attributed to twins.)  They called each other "Frannie" and "Johann".   They were always in the same class.   Neither of them passed The School Certificate - (You had to have "A minimum of 6 passes, including English Language" ).  Also, Sport was not John's forte.

After school, John had six months as a projectionist at "The Princes" Cinema, Granby Street followed by a five year Apprenticeship, servicing mobile Cranes on the Liverpool Docks with a firm called "Williams & Jones".  John put in some very hard (part-time) studying, at Byrom Street Technical College, and Passed a "Higher National Certificate in Electrical Engineering".

His next assignment was to be two years designing Power Transformers, at the English Electric Company, Kirkby, Liverpool.  This was followed by 6 month living in Canada, but he was too homesick to settle.  There was a bonus, to this exercise, however, as it triggered off his decision to move to live in Welwyn Garden City.

This was to be his more-or-less permanent home, thereafter - and, more importantly, it allowed John to complete his family.  After marrying a Liverpool Girl (Edna Corlett), they produced five girls (Joan), (Chris), (Jennifer), (Carol) and (Anita).  For a change, they then produced a boy, (John), to complete the set.  In Welwyn, John worked, as an Electronic Engineer, for "Murphy Radio" (in its many subsequent names, " Rank" etc.)  He went on to put in the best part of 40 years, with the same company. 

Our Site would be interested in any memories that our members may have of the Galvin Twins.  (Frank died in Canada, in the 1990's).

BTW - JOHN WAS CREMATED WEARING HIS COLLEGIATE OLD BOYS TIE

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