‘A true hero and one of a kind’ - Tributes paid to Crawley Town fan Eric Strange

Unfortunately, at thirty-seven minutes past two on Tuesday, I received a text from his granddaughter, Pam, advising me that her much loved grandad had passed away. To me, he was someone that was an ever present, whenever Crawley Town were at home. He didn’t sport the red and white of the team he followed, but the black and white of the St. John ambulance brigade. This programme we are taking a break from the Stan Markham story to pay a timely tribute to Eric Strange OStJ

Born in Reading on 27th January 1924 to Edith and Ernest Strange, clearly an alliterative family, he went to school at Redlands Road and then Park Lane when it was built. He then went to Reading Grammar School because he missed out on going to Christ Hospital School by 1 mark!

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In 1940 he joined the Air Raid Precautions as a Messenger Boy, and when he was 18, he became a Warden and that is when he first began learning first aid. In June 1943, when he got his ‘Call Up’ papers, he joined the Navy, and just one year later at the young age of 20, he became an officer in command of a landing craft taking soldiers onto Sword Beach. D Day had arrived. Under heavy fire from the German defenders, he tried in vain to use his first aid skills when a young lad was wounded in the chest, but sadly there was nothing that could be done to save him.

He later said, to his family that he wasn’t a hero. The soldiers who died were the heroes, he was just lucky.

Two years earlier, when he was 18, he met Doreen Watson at the Young Communists Association group when she became a new member. The group quickly disbanded as they spent their time organising river trips rather than talking about politics! They married in 1944 and were married for 70 years until she sadly passed away in 2014. ‘I came back from Normandy on the Wednesday and said we’re going to get married on the Saturday, and we did!’ (Eric’s words)

After the war ended, Eric joined St John Ambulance in Reading, Berkshire, where he would attend Reading football matches as part of the first aid team. Luckily, for us in Crawley, the family moved here in 1952, where Eric became a member of what was then the Crawley and Three Bridges Ambulance Division (men only). Once again, he became active at football, providing first aid cover at Town Meadow with St John. This he continued to do until 1991 when he had to retire, aged 67 as the rules stated.

“Grandad always said you should always support your local team!” Granddaughter Pam.

HAVE YOU SEEN? Crawley community centre praised for vaccination effort | Crawley ranked the hardest place in the South East to pass a driving test | Crawley school achieves music mark status for it’s work encouraging students into musicAs well as working as a Photo Lithographer at Beric Press during the week, until the early 1960’s he would volunteer to crew the ambulance at weekends, the first vehicle being a Rolls Royce with a silver bell at the front. St John was the ambulance service back then and there was no such position as paramedic in those days.

Eric took over the Crawley Ambulance Cadet Division as Superintendent in 1955, leading them to win many trophies including the County First Aid cup and the Drill competition. He introduced camping to the division, running a series of weekend camps at Handcross before venturing into a series of camps lasting a full week. This was real camping, toilets using holes in the ground, open fire cooking and early morning PT!

He progressed into other roles including County Camp advisor, Area Staff Officer and latterly Deputy Area Commissioner but his passion was teaching. Not only did he have his Brigade work to carry out, he was also the secretary to the Crawley St John Ambulance Association (the old teaching branch of St John). He, together with Doreen, taught a ten-week course consisting of two-hour sessions to approximately 60 members of the public leading them to their first aid certificate. He was a man of high standards and if someone did not meet those standards, they would not be given a certificate.

One of his favourite teaching points was the treatment of bleeding: “You ‘P’ on it” he would say, of course he meant apply pressure. A few days before he died, Hannah, one of his granddaughters, asked him how to treat bleeding, he replied ‘Pressure’, First aider to the end.

Eric taught first aid to the local factories, and when the First Aid at Work Act came in, he pioneered the courses along with Kim Godwin and the Late Pam Gauld. He could always be seen with his pipe in his mouth resulting in the old headquarters being full of smoke!! Once again, his standards were very high, you only passed if you were good enough. If not, you failed and re-sat the course. It was often remarked by the candidate that they realised they had not been good enough to pass the first time.

Eric was also a Tutor Trainer, ensuring that all the trainers in Sussex were of a high enough standard to teach. At the age of 71 years, he was disappointed to have reached the St John age for retirement but during his 30 years of service to the Brigade he received the Order of St John (OStJ).

He remained an active member of the Crawley Fellowship until they stopped meeting due to COVID and as a result his blood was not red or blue, it was Black and White. His legacy has carried on for many years and he will always be remembered by those you knew and loved him.

Eric and Doreen had 3 children (Steve, Sue and Wendy), 9 Grandchildren (Michelle, Tanya, Pam, Cara, Gemma, Daniel, Tim, Joe and Hannah) and 12 Great Grandchildren

‘One of my early memories of Dad in Reading, was going to his allotment and he stuck his fork in the ground, and often a little Robin would land on it. He was an excellent athlete, well on one occasion anyway! We were playing cricket in Crawley, and this motorcyclist came off his bike and Dad ran faster than Usain Bolt to give him First Aid! He was a loving, supportive Father who taught us a lot! (Steve)

‘He was a wonderful human, the strong silent type with a naughty twinkle in his eye. I well remember Saturday matches at Town Mead, then back to Deerswood Road for the final score, sandwiches and cake.’ (Pam)

‘He was always a loving Grandad, I remember him always letting me help with St John Ambulance things from cleaning the dummies, to helping fold the triangular bandages that Nana had lovingly washed and ironed. When he worked for Beric Press, he would always give us wonderful calendars. When we had sleepovers at Deerswood Road he would sing songs, the one that sticks in my mind the most is two little dickie birds, and he would have bits of paper on his two fingers. He was the best Grandad anyone could ask for.’ (Tanya)

‘He was an inspiration, a true hero and one of a kind!’ (Hannah)

‘He was inspirational, one of a kind and the best Grandad I could ever have asked for.’ (Michelle)

Nanna would have said he was a loving husband but frustrating at times when he would do his jigsaw puzzles when she needed the table! They would never go to bed on a cross word. Clearly the chemistry worked as they saw 70 years of marriage together. (Michelle)