Graham was born in September 1936 in Beckenham to parents Rose and Frank.
During the war, he worked as a lift technician in Hatton Garden and manned an AA gun in Hyde Park at night with the Home Guard. Frank’s mother did not want to split up the family with evacuation so they lived through the Blitz at first hand. His brother, Stuart, arrived during the war years. Graham remembered flying bombs raining down; once you heard the motor cut out on the V-1 rocket, then you knew that an explosion would soon follow.
Graham made the most of his opportunities at Emanuel and by the time he left had earned his House Colours for Clyde. He was particularly involved in the arts, being a member of the School Choir, where he often sang solos or played the guitar in other performances. His interest in the arts continued with working backstage at dramatic productions and he was also a member of the Photographic Society. The quality of his photography was noted in The Portcullis magazine. Like many of his era, Graham was also a member of the CCF.
In the late forties and fifties, Graham enjoyed going to see Tommy Lawton play for Chelsea or watching cricket at the Oval or Lords. Rowing for the school VIII on the Thames, he talked of the coach cycling along the towpath barking instructions though a megaphone.
With the need for another income in the household, further education was dismissed in favour of a job as chemist at the gasworks, then at the Atomic Energy Authority in Woolwich and later Chatham. Graham married Diana, an NHS nurse, in December 1963 and they moved into their first home in Strood.
Graham spent a lot of time taking his children to musical or other activities they were involved in. He eventually decided to join them in the Godalming Band and was given the BB Bass, the largest instrument of all. He taught himself to play and even entered himself for Grade 5.
Graham’s family say that he just seemed to ‘know stuff’ and was happy to teach his children and grandchildren anything from how to hold a first cricket bat to how to mix and make mince-meat and puddings in the run up to Christmas or where to go blackberrying. Singing was also a lifelong passion for Graham. He sang in Handel’s Messiah countless times, including under the legendary
Handelian conductor Charles Farncombe in the Handel Opera Society in the 1950s and ‘60s.
Taken from the funeral address by Graham’s son, Roland, with an addition from Emanuel Archivist, Tony Jones