WEST Kilbride lost one of its best known residents with the recent passing of Joseph Kelly – a weel kent face in the village with his trademark cravat and military bearing.

The following is an extract taken from the Eulogy delivered at Joe’s funeral service.

The youngest of four children, Joe Kelly was born in 1930 in a nursing home near the tea plantation in Ceylon which his father managed, and was initially educated at home by his mum and then at school in England.

He was a slight sickly child prey to illness, as they all were in that climate.

He had a strange and difficult early life, dominated by shortage of money with long separations from his siblings and parents, and dangerous boat journeys home to school in Britain on one of which he went missing for a day!

Joe did not officially exist until 1956 when his father finally registered his birth aged 26, his birth declaration is a precious document for which there could be no copy, ever.

He first attended a convent in Chorlton cum Hardy with his sister. And later a senior school called the Mount until 1947.

Difficult to believe now that he was such a small child who was bullied at school. That is until he finally grew and developed his enduring love for rugby and cricket. And very good at them he was, often making team captain.

At the age of 17 he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers, and rose to rank of Major.

He loved the army, the camaraderie, the order, and the sport.

He only managed to pass his driving test thanks to the army because he managed to bribe the examiner with a bottle of whisky!

More importantly he met a certain Edward Moorat with whom he became best friends. A fortuitous encounter as his future wife Babette was Teddy’s sister, and theirs was a bit of a whirlwind romance.

They met for two weeks at Christmas, wrote to each other for the months that followed and got engaged when he came home on leave that year.

They were married in 1957 thanks to a rugby injury and he was very proud to have had one of the first ever successful vein grafts in his right arm. He also took up boxing and after 46 knockouts, the sickly wee boy became better known as “Killer Kelly”.

He felt no need to boast about his boxing conquests but freely admitted he was terrified each and every time he entered the ring.

He saw active service in Cyprus, doing counter insurgency duty.

On patrol going street by street, in the dark, no back up and no cover; he wore his boxing boots, less noise, able to move quicker with more feel of the ground.

He also played for Sale Rugby Club, not bad at the age of 18, along with both his brothers. Three brothers in the same team is still a record in the rugby world.

In 1967/8, Joe left the army when the pressures of his growing family, five children by this time, and his mum’s elderly parents, meant that moving home every two years became unrealistic.

The family arrived in West Kilbride to stay with grandparents for the Easter Holidays and never left!

He tried teaching, but as many ex-army officers did he went into security. Initially this was at the Rootes Car Plant in Linwood and then in his dream job, as head of security for the Museums and Art Galleries for Glasgow.

He was there when they built the Burrell Collection, and his family remember running around Kelvingrove Art Gallery when it was closed, wonderful!

Joe and Babette had six children, Marguerite, Josephine, Michael, Rosemary, Mairi Louise and Anthony whom he was immensely proud off and despite his generation; he was a very “hands on” dad, cooking, shopping, cleaning and brushing hair.

However, due to their lack of sporting prowess the children were something of a disappointment to him.

Happily the sporting genes skipped a generation and he watched the grandchildren compete at various levels in various sports with great enthusiasm. Football, golf, running, horse-jumping to name but a few.

Due to ill health Joe retired at the age of 57. Retirement suited him well, time to spend with Babette and pursue the loves of his life full time. Painting, writing, watching sport, playing golf and curling, and the ever growing family, now up to 30 including grandchildren.

He was active in the church and the community, the memorial at Jack’s View was particularly important to him, and he was very lucky to have great friends who shared his many interests.  For a few years, he and Babette travelled widely in Europe mainly in pursuit of art; their favourite destination was Florence which they visited many times.

He painted throughout his life, some wonderful monochrome sunsets of his postings overseas. He was fantastic at trees, water and landscapes, and snow.

Like Picasso he had various periods, green, orange, blue, impressionist, seascapes, all wonderful.

The surreal circus phase and his people….probably best forgotten He took art classes when he could and was still going on a Friday evening until the week that he was admitted to hospital.

He was prolific; currently there are three rooms in the house fully occupied with his art work.

He would invite every visitor and indeed, any passer-by, to come and inspect his work.

He developed a strong rapport with a local artist Stewart Soutar who was his teacher.

And last year at the age of 83, with Stewart’s encouragement he had his first solo exhibition in the Community Centre which gave him tremendous pleasure and was a great success.

He has passed many of his talents on to the next generation, especially art, and many of the grandchildren show real talent.

He also took credit for single handedly reintroducing cravats as a fashion statement, of which he had a very large collection, ever more colourful and garish, and bought a new one almost every week!

Joe Kelly was an old fashioned courteous gentleman who managed to master the 21st century.

A rugby jock who brushed his daughters’ hair and cooked risotto.

A stoic who carried the burden of Parkinsonism lightly but cried like a baby when England won the rugby.

He has had a truly great innings.