Maurice Garton

[DaveW]

Nottingham Branch's oldest member Maurice Garton died in his sleep aged 92 in the City Hospital, Nottingham, Saturday 14th September. Not many outside Nottingham Branch may remember him since he outlived most of his contemporaries. In later years he was not able to get to meetings due to his wife's illness.

He originally started breeding tropical fish with a friend but later took up cacti in the late 1950's. I remember him telling me he and his friend could not afford the society £1 subscription as apprentices after the war so split the cost between them to get the then NCSS Journal. Almost unbelievable prices now, but when I was an apprentice joiner ten years later my starting wage was just two pounds eight shillings (£2.40p) so you thought twice about paying almost half your weekly wage for a society subscription! Also you saved up to buy the then most desirable cactus book, Borg's Cacti, which cost one Pound ten shillings = £1.50p.

Maurice ran a cold greenhouse in later years rather than using paraffin as in his early days, covering plants in winter. He tended to specialise in Echinocereus that were more winter hardy. He was a member of the Echinocereus Reference Collection whilst it lasted. He also emigrated to Australia for four to five years and was a member of the Australian Society, but then returned to Nottingham and back to our branch. In his early days he did a lot of grafting and bought one seed of Aztekium ritteri which came Sellotaped to the order, raised it and grafted it and grew it for years.

Miss you mate!

Dave Whiteley

[RayW]

Nice story Dave, as an apprentice in the building trade myself in the sixties you bring back a few memories.
Yes the Borg book was the go to book at the time, looks very old school now but I still have that first book I bought and it still gets the occasional use.