TUESDAY saw the funeral of a well respected Barnoldswick man, Thomas William Baxter Whipp.

As reported in last week's Herald, Tom died in Steeton's Airedale General Hospital last Thursday morning, aged 86, after a short illness. He died peacefully, with members of his family at his bedside.

Tom was born in Mosley Street, Barnoldswick, on August 2 1911, the son of cotton manufacturer Herbert Whipp and Rhoda Baxter. His father had served in the Royal Navy in the early 1900s and rejoined the service when war broke out in 1914.

When Tom was five, his mother took him and his sister Sarah to Aberdeen to see their father. One day he ran away through the streets of Aberdeen to the docks. Recognising him, a sailor from his father's ship took him aboard and hid him under a tarpaulin.

Only after the ship had completed a mine sweeping operation was Tom reunited with his anxious mother!

Back in Barnoldswick, Tom attended the Church School. He didn't like his school days much - suffering comparison with an older and brighter sister - and he left as soon as he could to begin work in the cotton mills.

Tom's social life revolved around chapel, although his activities were far from puritanical!

The institute instilled a love of games which was to last a lifetime. Whist and dominoes fascinated him, but his greatest joy was tennis. The Baptists had courts at the back of Tom's home and he used them to become the best player in Barnoldswick.

Tom's churchgoing also led to him meeting Ethel, his wife-to-be, on the "rabbit run" - a Sunday evening walk for aspiring couples.

But his courtship again landed him in trouble in Scotland when the young couple fell foul of landladies who, believing they were runaways, refused to give them rooms!

When eventually they married, Tom and Ethel went to live at Bank Edge, which was to be their home for the rest of their lives. Tom's parents and aunts had built the property in the 1920s and nearly lost their home when the family business went bust in the depression.

By now, Tom had begun the business which was to dominate the rest of his life - and his diet.

In the Bank Edge fields he was busy building up his stock of poultry, and in the house he was busy eating his way through a lifetime's consumption of more than 100,000 eggs!

But the hens didn't yet provide a living and in the 1930s Tom worked for Briggs and Duxbury and later Dobson's Dairy, taking Tuesdays off for hatching.

During the Second World War, Tom and Ethel took in lodgers. Members of the original jet engine design team, working in secret at Bankfield Shed, newly acquired by Rolls-Royce, were among their guests. In particular, Arthur Bill and Ron Charlton became lifelong friends.

Tom and Ethel's eldest son, Keith, was also born at that time, followed after the war by their daughter Denise.

By now they were working long hours building up their pedigree poultry business. In 1951, their hard work paid off when they won a national breeding competition. When they were both in their 40s they bred a little themselves and had their youngest son, David.

During the next two decades "looking after the hens" meant almost unremitting labour, sometimes working around the clock. A failure of the electricity supply to the incubators used to hatch eggs meant hours of manually turning the machines. Once the alarm didn't go off and all the young chicks died.

Holidays were few and far between, but in 1962 Tom celebrated Burnley's cup final game by chartering a Dakota and flying down to see the match at Wembley.

He was by now well known in the town as "eggy" Whipp, with a well established egg round. But, with a growing family, extra income was needed to supplement the business so Tom returned to work in the mills, eventually becoming a clothlooker at Storey Fabrics.

Tom's determination to see fair play soon meant he was elected as a union rep. He was to become chairman of the local union and spent many years dealing with its affairs.

When he retired from paid employment he continued helping people by becoming a Citizens' Advice Bureau volunteer - the first man to do such work in Barnoldswick.

Tom also helped whenever someone he knew needed transport to and from hospital, although his willingness to visit hospital did not extend to his own health.

He refused to see a doctor for more than 40 years, maintaining that he was better off not knowing what was wrong with him!

When he was 83, he finally gave up the last parts of his egg round, with great regret. In later years he had combined the round with a waste paper collection for the Baptist Church and also sold home grown strawberries when they were in season.

Last summer, Tom and Ethel celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. Ethel's death in November meant Tom had to learn to cook more than boiled eggs, but he insisted on managing on his own.

He remained independent to the end, refusing to have anyone to look after him and continuing to beat his family at dominoes and whist!

As well as his children, Keith, Denise and David, he leaves five grandchildren.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.