Michael Magee

It is with great regret that we have learned that Michael crossed the bar during the weekend of 14th October 2000

EULOGY by Paul Laity
Mike Magee and I became friends fifty-one years ago, and I have very special memories of him. He had great personal integrity, courage, and a hatred of injustice. He loved life, his family, and this country of ours. He was born in Manchester on 3rd March 1931, and proudly pro-claimed that he was a Lancastrian. He was found dead at his flat at Cumberland Terrace on Monday 16th October.
Mike and I met in very strange circumstances at the end of 1949, on the Veryan Bay. He had joined the ship in the October whilst it was in Gibraltar for a refit. Shortly before Mike's embarkation, whilst the ship was en rout to Malta, some members of the crew had tried to murder the First Lieutenant with an anti-personnel charge, designed to kill hostile frogmen. It had exploded at night outside the First Lieutenants cabin. Although it had blown him out of bed, it had also wrecked the Officer's Quarters, destroyed many vital electric leads and blown a hole in the deck. Before long the ship was crawling with Naval Intelligence, and it wasn't long before the local Admiral had the crew mustered on the dockside, and a Detective Chief Superintendent Holmes was introduced to us. To a chorus of "Sherlock" the crew were dismissed.
Nobody was ever charged with causing the explosion, but three Liverpudlians who had provided each other with alibis were flown home to the U.K and were discharged from Devonport Barracks as "Services No Longer Required". The unpopular First Lieutenant had been kicked off the ship by the Captain at Malta.
Mike being an Electricians Mate and I being the Sick Berth Attendant meant that we were lumped together with the "odds & sods" in the forward...mess, so runs ashore together were inevitable.
We were both enthusiastic sinners, and we indulged our pleasures to excess. We did everything that our parents, schools, priests, and the Royal Navy had warned us against.
After his service in the Royal Navy, Mike joined the New Zealand Shipping Line and it was after his service in the Merchant Navy that he became a Publican. We had dreamed of owning our own private pubs where we could observe our own "licensing hours", where "Up Spirits" would be "piped" every hour, and where we could "Splice the Mainbrace" every day. For Mike, the dream became a reality and over a period of 36 years in the licensing trade he had a total of thirteen pubs - three at the same time for a while.
Mike's final job was a Caretaker/Minder of such luminaries as Lady Jaegen, Betty Boothroyd and the Duke of Devonshire, at one of the Queens "Grace and Favour" residences at Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park. Two years ago, using the influence of some of his care-taking guests, Mike organised a special investiture at the Royal Jordanian Embassy in London for both himself and I, where we received our Aquaba Medals from the Jordanian Military Attache with the press in attendance, and as you can imagine we made quite a day of that.
My memories of Mike are very rich and varied. I was proud to have known Mike and to call him my friend.
MAY HE REST IN PEACE.