Kenneth Illingworth: – [Heath 1932–1937]

Kenneth Illingworth was brought up in the Lee Mount area of Halifax where he attended Lee Mount Baptist Church and met his future wife, Winifred. He had two sisters, Audrey and Joan. Audrey died in her early 20s but Joan is still alive, in her mid nineties, living in Buckinghamshire. On leaving school he followed in his father’s footsteps in textile design before spending the war working on radios in the RAF. His future wife had been posted to Strathpeffer in Scotland during the war and they married in 1947. They adopted Susan in 1954 and then Ruth.

He worked as a textile designer at Standevens, in Ladyship Mill, before moving to Mallinsons in Huddersfield and then John Foster and Sons in Queensbury for the end of his working life.

At Lee Mount Baptist Church, he and Winifred were Sunday School teachers and Kenneth served as a deacon, as the treasurer and as the secretary at different times.

In 1970 the family moved to Willowfield and joined Pellon Baptist Church; in the 1990s they moved into a bungalow a few hundred yards away from where they had been living. Sadly, in 2007 Winifred died having suffered with dementia for a few years prior to her passing. Kenneth and Winifred were always a close couple. They had a few friends who came round to play bridge but sadly most of their friends died in their early sixties.

Kenneth was by now a grandfather and a great grandfather as well as an uncle. He moved into a self-contained flat at Ing Royd and rejoined Lee Mount Baptist Church until failing health meant he spent his last year or so in Savile Park care home.

He had always been active, walking back for lunch with the family every day when he was working in Ovenden and taking a long walk at 92 around Hollingworth Lake with his daughter, Ruth. He enjoyed shopping, particularly for clothes, reflecting his life in textile design. His daughter, Ruth, says that he never considered dying and she struggled to get him to decide on readings and hymns for his funeral service.

Our condolences to Susan and Ruth and the family.

Thanks to Revd Terry Hepworth for his assistance in preparing this obituary.

John R Hudson