John stayed at school for secondary education, then attended polytechnic, gaining a diploma in management studies andservices. (John 5/96)

John is a consultant in Time and Motion Studies. (John 5/96)

2017. GRO Online Death Index, Duckering, John Andrew born 1945, death reg. Q1 2017 Devon (423-1A) entry no. 515013083

Remembering John
John was born in Nottingham and moved to Devon to a very remote village called Germansweek when he was about 7. It was a pretty hard rural lifestyle. Even as a young person John was a little bit of a loner. He was a deep thinker and loved art and writing. He was one of 10 children Pamela ,Yvonne, Michael, John, Shirley, Jennifer, Peter, Robin, Elizabeth and Penelope. We will hear more about those early years form Michael. And his younger sister Elizabeth has reminisced about her rather suave older brother. Vivid memories of a painted yellow car and lovely clothes.
John did not have any formal education and left school early to work.
He met Margaret when he worked in Exmouth at a store. Margaret was from Scotland but staying with her Aunt at the time. The couple got married in 1968 and were married for 25 years until their eventual divorce. They had two children Michelle and David.
As a family they moved around frequently with Johns work, Hastings Bridgewater and Leicester. John could turn his hand and skills to many things over the years. He had been a painter and decorator, and by all accounts was very good at this.
But later on he could not let his intellectual and clever mind rest. And he got work in the management services of local government. And completed a degree. He then went into consultancy which gave him the time to explore the other passions in his life.
Art, painting and writing, He wrote books on many subjects crime drama, philosophy. He wrote poetry and drew fantastic cartoons. Many of his work is being discovered for the first time following his death.
As the years went by John never gave up on looking dapper! He was very well turned out, and was recognised for being a trend setter of Exeter a couple of years ago in the local newspaper!
As children, Michelle recalls fond memories of her Dad. The overriding one is that of music waking them up at the weekends Elvis baring out!. He had a wide range of taste. He introduced his children to a good solid foundation in quality music. Brian Ferry, Fleetwood mac. All played on hi quality equipment. Michelle remembers a birthday treat was to spend her money choosing a record or two in the local record store.
The family clearly has creativity in the Duckering blood. His niece Alice was unable to play today, but she had wanted to for her special uncle. And Michelle and David talk of their firm love of music.
John adored his cars he had a Capri and Astra GTE highly desirable cars of the time. He loved them. He could be seen every day coming to check it his .Audi 22. The car he had most recently.
There is no doubt John was a complex man, and a deep thinker. it may be his legacy that you go on to learn more about him as you discover new things about him.
Over the years and more recently he became more isolated, often choosing his own company. Part of saying goodbye today may be about forgiveness. Forgiving John his ways and choices. And most of all forgiving yourself for any sadness you may have. And remembering the positive aspects and creativity John bought to your lives spoken Humanist Celebrant Jane Anderson20


Memories of John by Michael
John was my closest, younger brother. We grew up from childhood in the late 1940s, and as numbers 3 & 4 in the family pecking order, we had to stand together between two older and two younger, sometimes bossy, sisters.
From a young age in Nottingham, we played together, inventing various escapades, projects and adventures. We once mimicked the cowboy westerns of Saturday matinees at the local Majestic cinema by climbing out of our bedroom window onto the flat porch roof and leaping onto imaginary horses to escape the baddies; when it snowed, we rolled up a huge snowball that blocked the narrow cul-de-sac of Corby Road, to the great surprise of the postman arriving in his van, and to our own huge delight.
The farm at Germansweek was a perfect adventure playground, with its fields, stream and woods. We were famous explorers discovering the source of the River Wolf, hunters of wild animals (mainly rabbits) and builders of dens and tree-houses.
After moving to North Tawton, we had our first bicycles. In those endless, balmy summer days of the 1950s, we cycled miles; exploring the Devon lanes to discover a derelict mansion house, Bondleigh dump, and remote villages with exotic names such as Zeal Monachorum. We swam in the River Taw, scrumped apples, and played all day football with the local boys. We made catapults, fishing rods, and surreptitiously cut branches from the Yew tree in the parish churchyard to fashion into longbows.
Elvis Presley was a revelation, and we listened avidly to the weekly Elvis show on Radio Luxembourg. We cajoled Dad into taking us in his Austin A35 to see the 1958 film King Creole at the Okehampton Carlton, where the local teddy boys turned out in force.
Whilst I became a penniless student in Bristol, John left school to work, and began to buy Elvis records. In the summer, we would sit in our bedroom in Countess Wear playing Elvis at full blast with the windows wide open; or we would cycle down to Topsham to hang out with the gang and chat up the local girls.
John would often come to Bristol for weekends, and in late 1963, we went to the Saturday dance at the Corn Exchange. This was hugely popular because female students and trainee nurses got in for free. John was an attractive young man, so we had no trouble in persuading the girls to dance with us. We ended the evening with two pretty local girls. I wasn't that enamoured with mine, but did fancy John's, and during the evening I somehow got her phone number. John returned to Exeter, and a week later I phoned Joyce, for that was her name.
When Joyce and I married in 1965, John was my best man.
Our careers and families would later take us in different directions, and although we saw each other less frequently, the glue that bound us in childhood remained throughout our lives. John always dressed fashionably, and retained his slim figure and boyish good looks into his 60's & 70's.
A few years ago, John stayed with us in Cheltenham, and we spent the day at Cheltenham races.
We were not regular race-goers, but John certainly looked the part.
John was my childhood play-mate, teenage buddy and life-long friend. In losing him, I have lost a part of me that until now I didn't know I had. By Michael21

John was the fourth one born out of ten children. The first four were born very close together within five years, which was myself (Pam), Yvonne, Michael and John. We all had nick names – mine was ‘Bossy Boots’, Yvonne’s was ‘Tuppence’, Michael’s was ‘Big Feet’ and John’s was ‘Bun’. As to why he became to be called ‘Bun’ I don’t know - he must have liked buns.

When we moved from Nottingham to the farm at Germansweek we spent many happy hours playing, especially during the summer holidays. Our dad put the tent up in the field opposite the farmhouse. There was a stream running along the bottom of the field. Michael and John would make roads along the edge of the stream and run their cars along them. We also attempted to cook baked beans on the campfire outside of the tent and pretended we were camping for real. We also attended Sunday school at the chapel, which was at Germansweek. On being asked if we would sing in the choir, we did and it turned out to be that we were the choir – the quartet. I thought we sounded pretty good.

As we grew older I went away to College and Michael went to boarding Grammar school, so we only came home during the holidays. By this time we had moved to North Tawton. As John grew up he was very neat, particular and well groomed. One day mum said to me John keeps buying jumpers. They weren’t any old jumpers – they were M&S lambs wool jumpers, because he liked the female assistants in M&S.

When John got married, Mark, my eldest son took me down to see his house at Littleham. On showing us around he opened a big cupboard in the kitchen and to my amazement it was stacked side to side, bottom to top full of canned food. You couldn’t get another tin in there – so I don’t run out was his reply. During his later years John became quite a private person. We would sometimes see him in Exeter walking through Cathedral Close. I asked him what he was doing now and he said writing a book. It turned out he had written half a dozen.

The last time we saw John was last August at my 75th birthday party. He looked well – in good spirits and was enjoying himself. That’s how we will remember John. Pam22