Sometimes we include people in "Personalities" who maybe dont quite fit the bill, but in Tom Woodward`s case, that cannot be more wrong.
Tom died in early June aged 80, and was laid to rest on June 22nd.
Our earliest memory of Tom was in the old HML workshop next to the Gearbox Bay in Northampton, the foreman at that time being Seamus McCabe, around 1971.
Tom was mentioned quite a lot by lot Seamus and dear Gerry Lord regarding his ability to be "unavailable" on certain mornings, mostly Monday`s, and many`s the time his whereabouts in the Yard was questioned by more than one boss.
But to meet Tom was a pleasure, a Geordie to his boot caps, the whimsical smile on his face when he was giving you a line was brilliant, and over the years, I dont think he ever lost that smile, and he always put a shift in when it was called for.
From people`s distant memories, Tom first started with Euclid Wagon Hirers back in the middle/late 1960`s, working for Jimmy Cahill, then E.W.H. Plant Hire Manager.
He probably left more than once in the intermediate years, but we remember him back in the HML Shop in 1971, although he was to leave and come back from there a couple of times.
Many years had then passed since those halcyon days of strong, roving, hard working site fitters, when Tom reappeared out of nowhere a few years back, as far as Blackwood Hodge Memories was concerned, a large blast from the past was with us again.
He attended several Reunions with Maria, and also the more localised annual HML/BHH nights out at the Toby in Moulton, and apart from a bit more wear and tear, the man was the same Tommy Woodward, full of the craich and looking for everybody around him to have a good time.
The world is usually a poorer place when a larger than life character shuffles off this mortal coil, and without a doubt, in Tom Woodward, that is certainly the case.
God bless you Tom, and dont forget to fill in the overtime on the timesheets !!
The Editors. 10/07/2018
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