Ted Munyard, former Grampian Regional Council school welfare officer, Phoenix Club volunteer, DIY enthusiast, keen gardener and poet has passed away aged 93.
Cyril Edward Munyard – always known as Ted – was born on May 27, 1928.
He had one older brother Robert, and lived with his parents, George and Annie Munyard, in East Finchley, London.
Ted attended Holy Trinity School on East End Road but at just 14 he left school for the world of work joining the ranks of the Post Office.
Dodging bombs
His main role was to deliver telegrams on his bike – which fuelled the stories he’d later tell his grandchildren.
“When I was your age I was riding bikes and dodging bombs,” was a favourite phrase. However, it wasn’t an exaggeration.
One day when out cycling he heard the familiar hum of a doodlebug overhead. When it went eerily quiet he knew what was about to happen.
On that particular occasion it meant a bomb falling in London, and Ted diving for cover in the nearest building: a set of ladies toilets.
The Dambusters
Ted joined the RAF in 1946 to undertake his national service.
“Dad was actually part of the Dambusters Squadron but of course the war had finished by then. He was very proud none-the-less,” said Fiona Scott, Ted’s daughter.
In late 1948 when Ted was still in the air force, a skeleton staff was in operation one evening on the Scampton base where he was stationed.
Dorothea May Gaudie – known as Thea, a member of the WAF from Cults, was also on duty.
Playing card games, the pair fell in love over a game of ‘cheat’.
A move to Scotland
Ted proposed to Thea on Christmas Day 1950 and they got married on June 2nd, 1951 in Cults West Church.
They had their reception in the Douglas Hotel in Aberdeen and for their honeymoon a week was spent in the St Leonard’s Hotel in Stonehaven before going back to London.
As the pair were demobbed before the wedding Thea secured secretarial work and Ted went back to the postal service.
They moved to Scotland in 1952 when Ted transferred to the Post Office in Crown Street.
Canada calling
In 1954 along with their best friends Betty and Bill, the two couples planned to emigrate to Canada.
Leaving Betty and Thea at home, Bill and Ted travelled to Montreal to find work, and did landscape gardening for a short time.
After six months when they didn’t secure enough points to emigrate and bring over their wives permanently they returned to Aberdeen.
On his return Ted became a travelling sales rep working for organisations that included a fresh fruit business and Jamieson’s floor polish.
Daughters Fiona and Lynda were born in 1955 and 1957.
Greengrocer shop
Thea’s father, Robert Gaudie, owned a small greengrocer’s at the top of Union Wynd on Summer Street.
Ted and Thea began helping out and when Robert retired they took on the shop.
The family moved from Thistle Place to Leggart Avenue and in 1968 Ted began a new career working as the local authority school welfare officer.
Difficult job
The role of the welfare officer – or the truancy officer as it was also known – was to make sure all children that should be in school, were in school.
Part of this was to conduct a census in the summer holidays so the council knew how many kids were supposed to be attending.
Fiona explained: “Dad’s job was also to make sure kids were equipped for school. He’d check they could get there and did they have the correct clothes.
“I remember him telling me that he visited a family once a little boy came to the door in just his vest. The reason the child wasn’t in school was because he didn’t have the right clothes.
“Dad would sort that out too. They called him the ‘tacker.'”
Here comes the tacker…
Tackers – named because they would ‘tak children back to school’, were known for handing out ‘tackers shoes’ – state-funded black school shoes.
If a young person was caught shop lifting in school hours the welfare officer was also called in.
“I think the job had it’s moments. He was threatened once and parents knew all too well they could get into trouble if they didn’t send their kids to school.
“We certainly knew that too. Dad was always telling us he could go to prison if we misbehaved,” Fiona joked.
Ted remained there until he retired in 1992.
The old brewery
As well as work Ted also spent time volunteering at the Phoenix Club – a youth group for teenagers with learning difficulties or disabilities.
However, In 1973 Ted and Thea bought the former brewery in Oldmeldrum with plans to renovate it for their family home.
Lynda said: “Dad was renovating it himself and so it took a while as he could only do it in his spare time. He juggled everything until 1984 when he sadly suffered a heart attack.
“He had to take it easier so he stood down from the Phoenix Club.”
From Oldmeldrum they moved to the Ferns at Methlick where the couple had 19 acres.
A lover of DIY and a great gardener he brought on 2000 oak tree saplings for the millennium.
They were eventually planted all over the UK including Balmoral Estate, Haddo, Burghead and Fraserburgh.
He also loved history and was Methlick Heritage Society secretary for a time.
Final move
Ted and Thea moved again, this time to Methlick Wood in 2006.
Thea passed away in 2016 following Alzheimer’s disease. They had 10 years in their final home together.
Ted broke his hip on boxing day 2021, and during assessments for his injury, and another back problem, scans revealed lung cancer.
On January 4 he was given the devastating news that nothing more could be done, and by January 30 he had passed away.
“He didn’t have a lot of time to think about it which was a blessing as he was so upset about it.
“All he wanted was to speak to his minister, which seemed to help.”
Breath of the Spirit
A member of Methlick Parish Church and Ellon Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Ted expressed his feelings and his faith in poetry.
In 2006 when his grandson Michael was tragically killed in a fatal accident he began writing.
These verses formed a book called Breath of the Spirit and comprised some religious and some non-religious poems.
Ted’s funeral took place on February 9. A poem he wrote about his seat in the church – Fourth Pew on the Right, was read.
He was buried at Methlick Cemetery alongside his wife.
Ted is survived by his daughters and their husbands, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
More than £500 was raised for cancer research at the celebration of his life. Copies of his book are still available in return for a donation to Cancer Research.
You can read the family’s announcement here.