It is with great sadness that I have to inform you all that my dear friend Al has passed away.

Alan died peacefully at Hillingdon hospital on Wednesday  October 29. Big Al bravely fought hard to beat the cancer that returned after 20 years. He had been diagnosed with liver cancer on September 18th this year and had been in hospital pretty much every day since then. Alan also had to deal with pneumonia but he was ultimately unable to fight off infection. He defiantly held on for longer than we thought possible but he  finally slipped away that afternoon.

Alan’s funeral will be held on Wednesday November 12th at Breakspear Crematorium, Breakspear Road, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 7SJ at 12 midday. His wife Eileen has invited all his Weekend Wanderers detecting friends to come to service so please feel free to attend but no flowers please.  Alan’s wish was for a humorous ceremony and for a get together after the service to which you are all also invited. If you can’t make it then any cards or condolences can be sent to me to forward on to his wife Eileen

To Eileen Dye
c/o Peter Welch
20 Whitewater Road
North Warnborough
Hampshire
RG29 1ED
England

 

ALAN DYE

Known as Alan Armstrong

1949 - 2014

Big Al standing at the gate was the first person you would have met when coming to one of our Weekend Wanderers club digs. Wearing dark shades and black ‘Harrington’ style jacket gave Big Al a hint of  ‘The Management’ and at this first point of contact you had quite obviously just run into Pete’s right hand man.

Al’s appearance did seem a touch intimidating and one vainly hoped not to become a victim of his cheeky cockney satirical witticisms. Not having the right money ready, complaining about lack of directions and worse crime of all, asking for a reduction was met with  a vinegary riposte. You had probably just earned yourself a life long nickname and Al was an unmerciful nickname giver. I can’t repeat some of the names he called some of you, all endearingly of course but mine began with an ‘A’ and ended in hole!

Yes, Alan’s humour was spread evenly on all unwitting folk but all for a very good cause; to lighten your day and put you in better spirits. If you had a bad journey to the dig or  all you found all day was even more bullets, or the fields were too dry or too wet, stubble to high, wrong king of stubble or wrong king of crop, whatever the reason his stock answer would be, ‘You can’t beat bad luck’

After many years running his own business in the ice cream trade then his own minicab company, Al was great at people and sorting them out (One way or another). During the week he would ride up front with me searching high and low for farmland and he would come into his own when seeing reluctant farmers. Between us we would play the ‘Good cop, bad cop’ scenario until the unfortunate farmer would give us permission to search their land. AL came out with some lines than made me cringe. One farmer in particular said to us on his doorstep that the only way we could search his lane was quote, ‘When I am dead’ Al’s reply, ‘Do you know when that will be?’ It got a smile from the old farmer who happened to be titled.

TO OUR GOOD FRIEND ALAN

Sarah and I have known Al for many years now but before he marshalled for us he was a regular WW member. That is until the day he felt unwell on one of our Christmas digs. This chap sat down and said,’ Oi mate, do you mind if I just sit here for a bit, I don’t feel too good’ I aid sure, just stir this mulled wine and make yourself useful. So it was that we got Alan working even during what we now know was a mild heart attack. The real thing hit him in the middle of a frosty field one February morning. He was lying down waving for help with people waving back thinking that he was just being nice. An hour later, Alan was in Hemel hospital and had earned his place as a marshal and we became good mates after that.

Big Al really got stuck into the organizing of the rallies which became as much his baby as mine. We would spend days sorting out rally sites, access, camping and all behind the scenes stuff most have no idea about. We even got him to wear period costume which was no mean feat.

Ok, Al’s has lost his mean look image but hey would’nt he just hate you all seeing him dressed like this!

His wife Eileen had gone to Tenerife and it was the quiet season for detecting. I think because of his previous stroke, Al’s left leg was a bit unreliable and one day he  fell down the stairs backwards and couldn’t get up for two hours. From that day on his back gave him real grief but he soldiered on. Here he is laughing an joking whilst we put together the stage for our last and final ‘Big Rally’ in 2013.

Al really loved getting the rally sites done up even though his back gave him gip all day. Evenings with a glass of red would inevitably end up with him singing bawdy songs  and retelling hilarious tales of our times out site hunting. Alsatians come to mind and was (Retrospectively) funny. I had to pay the farmer who just happened to own two massive shaggy black Alsatians. He was a scrap metal dealer so his dogs were the stereotypical nutty wolf sorts. With Al at the wheel, we pulled up to the farm house and I, seeing that one mad dog was securely chained, slipped out of the car to knock on the farm house door. Unbeknown to me, Al saw in his rear view mirror, the second dog which happened to be loose. I saw it too and headed quietly back to the open car door. Too late, the salivating monster had seen me and was almost on me so what does Al do but slip the car into gear and drive off. Diving into the car, I scalped my head on the door frame as Alan cried his eyes out laughing! I got him back but that’s another tale.

Alan as Best Man. In 2011 Sarah and I got married and naturally Al was my best man. In true Alan style he had to be different and wore a bright red shirt!

Al and I got on pretty and were what you would call ‘Best mates’ It always made me laugh when I phoned him and Eileen would answer. She’d shout up the stairs to him, ‘It’s your mate Pete, you should know who, he’s the only mate you’ve got!’

We would often out think each other and he often would say when stuck for an evasive word, ‘Oh, bollocks, I had it and it’s gone, hang on, no it’s gone again’ and I would have to guess, and nearly always correctly what he was trying to say. Trouble is I was doing the same so conversations were a bit incomplete at times. That could explain why we didn’t get a dig at the weekend ha ha.

The funny thing is that Alan and I were pretty close but things took a turn one day when he came over to stay.. I was starting to have my doubts.

There’s many a tale to be told regarding our dear Alan and no doubt you have some photos of him to add to this page. Send them in and I’ll add them here.

Our last real trip out was the Summer camping weekend August bank holiday in 2014. We had a great time sitting around the fire with our friends eating, drinking and so on. Al insisted on coming and I’m glad we had a good one that weekend as at that time he was starting to feel unwell.

The club won’t be the same without Big Al and I am sure he will be sorely missed by all of you but none more than Sarah and especially by me.

Pete

ALAN