We said goodbye to René today. René was a wonderful friend and will be greatly missed. It was at Dora’s funeral that I started this journey and therefore it was fitting that it was at René’s funeral where I first served in St Augustine’s. I want to write more, but describing the day feels wrong, and I can’t do René justice if I tried to write about him. However, Lyn did a wonderful job on René's eulogy.
To quote Shakespeare, “we come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”. In the case of Rene Boyeldieu we most certainly come to praise him and celebrate a long and marvellous life.
When someone dies at the age of 91, those present at the funeral are usually few and mainly relatives. It is a measure of the impact Rene had on people that so many are here today. You will all have your own particular memories of someone who lived life to the full and constantly told you about it.
Rene was a great storyteller with phenomenal memory for names, dates and places. The stories reflected his life in Downend, at school, during his time in the army, back in Bristol at Winterbourne and Stoke Bishop , in Leeds working for Burtons, and finally in Pucklechurch, where he revelled in the village community.
He was from an age past, with high morals and a keen sense of duty and responsibility. He was evacuated from France after Dunkirk; spent time in India, Syria, Germany and in Singapore and retired from the army as a Lieutenant Colonel. His experiences shaped his life and he continued to be highly organized, regimented and fiercely independent but always with a sense of humour.
He was immensely proud of his background and took great pleasure in telling people his name for the first time - waiting for them to ask him to repeat it and then asking him to spell it. He usually followed “Rene” by saying “as in “Allo, Allo”. His spoken and written French was excellent and his services as a translator were much in demand. He always enjoyed his visits to France particularly Menton, which he visited for the last time with Roland and Connie in 2006. According to Rene, during the visit he bought a fake designer watch from a market trader and then asked whether there was a guarantee, the trader asked him his age and when Rene told him he was 89 years old, the trader replied “in that case, Sir, there is a lifetime guarantee”.
He liked travelling and visited Tim and Jenny, his relatives in Canada in 2005 and his last visit abroad was to Spain with Peter and Jayne as recently as last March. He purchased his first computer a few years ago, and learning how to use the Internet and email enabled him to keep in contact with friends and relatives worldwide and gave him many hours of pleasure, even if it gave the rest of us a headache trying to keep him on the right path.
He was a Life-Member of the Twinning Association and had visited Pringy on many occasions with twinning and also on private visits with several of the friends he had made there. Pierre, a very good friend of mine, recounts the story of his first visit to Pucklechurch when, after having just arrived, he found himself next to Rene in the village hall. Rene engaged him in conversation, in French naturally, and Pierre was embarrassed that he could not place where Rene had been sitting on the coach and why he had not noticed him on the ferry. When Pierre mentioned this, Rene took great delight in explaining, in French again, that he was English and lived in Pucklechurch. The French held Rene in high regard and in 1993 he was presented with a medal from the French government for his services during the war.
He loved his rugby and in his youth, along with his brother Marcel, he played for Cleve and he remained a member of the club and only last year was made a Vice-President. When in Leeds he was Membership Secretary of Headingly Rugby Club when they were one of the premier clubs in England. Lately he revelled in being a member of “NITs” - a group who met in Peter’s pub, the Foresters, to watch international rugby on television and whose name was derived from the fact that they had “No International tickets”. Rene thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the camaraderie on those occasions and once again made new friends.
In Pucklechurch, Rene was active in village life and could always be seen out and about until quite recently. He was well-known in The Rosy, The Star and The Fleur which he used to visit each lunchtime. When the Prison Officers’ Club operated he would visit because he could enjoy a pink gin - he once told me that his friendship with Graham Winbolt had developed because he also liked pink gin and anyone who appreciated that drink was alright!
Rene was a networker - he knew many people from all walks of life; he introduced them to each other and then watched friendships develop; he organised many of their activities; he built up support groups and knew that he would never be left alone for long and would always have friends to turn to for help when necessary.
However you knew Rene, I am sure you will have many fond memories – he could be serious, he could be funny, he could be amusing, he could be considerate and he could be cantankerous but, …….the time is moving towards 12.30 and yes, we will go to the Fleur and be persuaded to have “the other half”.
Rene, old friend, raconteur, bon viveur and always a gentleman; au revoir et dorme bien.
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