Last updated 05:44, Friday, 19 September 2008

He was a man of many parts was James Snaith – town councillor, driving instructor, crofter, do-it-yourselfer, motoring organisation patrol man and mill overlooker. He was, also, a man known for speaking his mind whenever he believed in something and, whilst this did not always win him friends, it did win him a great deal of respect – as was shown by the fact that Silloth Town Council was well represented at his funeral.

Mind you, the man who was 74 when he died after a short illness, did not lack friends. Far from it.

He was an enthusiastic snooker player, had a snooker room with a full-sized table at his home and was a familiar and popular figure at the town’s rugby club twice a week.

He was a very sociable man and Thursdays were the only days when he had little to do.

Always known as Jim he was a Yorkshireman, born in Bradford where he went to school.

His first job was in a local worsted mill where he eventually became a foreman overlooker but he never really liked this sort of thing.

Being cooped up in a mill, with its heat and its smells, was not for him and so he changed his life completely by becoming a motorcycle patrol man with the RAC.

He was still based at Bradford but this meant that he was out in the open air for much of the time and it also meant that he had a motor cycle and side-car, as well as his own motor bike at home.

He thoroughly enjoyed this job, even though it sometimes meant being called out in the middle of the night but he eventually decided to change tack once again and become a driving instructor.

He was still in Bradford but then he and his wife Margaret went to live in the Yorkshire Dales, in a very old farmhouse.

He continued teaching people to drive and she learned how to spin with the wool from the two sheep that they owned.

After 10 years in the Dales they moved again, more than 300 miles north to the windswept Orkney Islands, where they bought a small farm and became crofters, in effect, although they were never registered as such.

Meanwhile, their son and his family had remained in Yorkshire before moving to Cumbria and the distance involved meant that they did not see a great deal of each other and so, 33 years ago, Jim and Margaret came south, to Silloth, where he once more became a driving instructor. His business did well and he never had to advertise. He retired three years back.

His retirement was short, very short. After three weeks he began work again because he simply could not stand being idle.

He was a man who enjoyed talking to people and he said that, as a driving instructor, he was sometimes looked upon as a confessor and as someone who could be asked for advice – and not just about driving either! Many of his pupils became and remained his friends.

He was elected a member of Silloth Town Council and in debate became well known as an outspoken man who never minced his words and who always thought that it right to say exactly what he meant.

His wife is also a town councillor, as well as being a Allerdale borough councillor and mayor of that council eight years ago.

She recalled that when they were first married, she and her husband had been poor and that if they wanted a job done he had to learn how to do it.

Consequently, he became a plumber, electrician and mechanic. In fact, he could turn his hand to almost anything.

Mr Snaith leaves his wife, son, granddaughter and grand son.

George Hudson & Sons, Carlisle, made the arrangements for his funeral, where a service of thanksgiving at Christ Church, Silloth, was followed by cremation in Carlisle.