Remembering George Sidney Tasker
Sid was born in West Chevington and for most of his life he was fit and well, only becoming ill a few days before his death at 98 on 17 January 2025.
At the age of seven his family moved to Leslie Row, in Radcliffe. On leaving school he went to work, as most of his contemporaries did, down the pit. He trained as an electrical engineer, subsequently training a whole generation of future engineers. He started out at Hauxley, finishing as shift charge engineer at Whittle Colliery.
At Hauxley he became a member of the colliery band, a pastime that continued long after the pit had closed and the band had ceased to be. As a cornet player he would often support other colliery bands and even played with the police band. He was still playing in the 1970s.
He married Margaret and they lived for a while in Warkworth, moving into Amble in 1954 when their house in Middleton Street was a new build. He spent the rest of his days there.
He was very proud of his VW beetle; he and Margaret would travel to Europe in it on holiday.
Photography was another of his interests. Using only a simple camera, he took hundreds of pictures of local scenes and events. He created his own darkroom to develop them. He would send photos to the Journal and regularly had them published.
In his retirement he was a familiar figure around the harbour, meeting up with friends on the seat by the Old Boat House. These friends were often referred to as the Harbour Gadgies. The outing usually involved a stop off in Spurreli’s. As he got older, his trip out might only stretch as far as the seat on Queen Street, outside the Post Office, but there was always a friend to stop and pass the time of day.
His daughter in law Barbara said ‘Sid was very sentimental’ so the loss of his wife and both of his sons hit him very hard. Filling his garden with brightly coloured flowers gave him great pleasure and kept his spirits up.
Sid was a well-respected member of the community with strong links to our past, that like him are sadly no longer with us.
Vivienne Dalgliesh
