Eulogy – John Davies

Friday 13th August 2010

Good Morning Minster, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The words I hope to deliver and have the privilege of delivering this morning have come together from numerous sources. Suggestions by Jill, from Peter McClelland, Jacqui Ashley and Sue Smith and some of my own recollections.

The detail may be hazy but what I will try and capture briefly is the essence of John Davies; a man who may have been small in size but gigantic in terms of talent, humour, professionalism and humanity.

Those who knew John well will appreciate that the last thing John would want you to hear is a dry monologue of his many achievements and successes. So perhaps I should start by saying that Jill thought it particularly appropriate for me to be asked to speak today because, as only a small handful of people know, John has masqueraded as Mrs Peter Jackson for the last ten years or so! But more of that later.

And as John used to start many of his own presentations, for the avoidance of doubt, yes, I am standing up!!

John was born on 6th October 1948. Born in the Dingle, in the South end of Liverpool where he always said the best scousers came from. He spent a lot of his youth associated with the Boys Brigade and always said he left school at 14 – I’m not so sure about that, but anyway in 1965 John started work in insurance. From this moment on Insurance became his professional passion for the next 40 years and more. He got off on the wrong foot, working for mutual health insurers, but it wasn’t long before he veered towards the world of shipping and Marine insurance.

He then joined a Shipping Company in Liverpool, dealing with Protection and Indemnity claims before joining Union Marine in 1970 where he started his professional love affair with cargo insurance.

Moving to work for the Sun Alliance took him to London and in 1979 he turned from handling claims into Marine underwriting.

He moved from the Sun Alliance to Commercial Union and it was that company in one of its various reincarnations that John was associated with for over 20 years and from where most of us will remember him best.

He returned to the North West in 1985 moving to Manchester as the Senior Marine Underwriter for Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland North and mid Wales.

It was in Manchester in the late 80’s that I first came across John, first as a client but then as a friend.

John as an underwriter client was a joy to work with – he knew his stuff, far more than I did, but he never let you know that and he always took advice and thanked you for it.

When I moved to Manchester in the 90’s, I was working a lot with John and his team and it became apparent to me that John was sending a lot of work to us that were in cases he probably could have done himself. I asked him about this and his answer gave away another of his passions – educating his youngsters. He said to me, yes, I probably could, but the youngsters should learn to run the cases themselves and I’m not around everyday – its your job to hold their hands, to teach them – what I want is that they never instruct you twice on the same point; they learn from you. And next time they have the confidence to do it themselves. That is our job.

And indeed, education became John’s mantra in the later years of his career – he created his own role of training consultant, set up the Marine Training Academy, wrote books and articles and training material. And I know that those he trained often returned to him time after time for advice and words of wisdom.

As well as being a client and a friend to me, John became a great friend of Hill Dickinson. And that betrayed another facet of John’s character and personality. Where his friends were concerned, nothing was ever too much trouble and whatever time spent was worth it, however long.

And let’s be honest, keeping track of time was never one of John’s fortes! He got so engrossed in his subject that time never seemed to matter. A quick meeting with John was never less than 2 hours. What with the update on Jill and the children the inevitable debate on the tactics of Roy Evans, Gerrard Houllier and Rafa Benitez – sadly we never got to celebrate the struggles of Roy Hodgson – there was scarcely time to debate whatever trifling issue of marine insurance might have prompted the conversation in the first place.

I remember some years ago I asked John for some advice on what a client wants from a lawyer in readiness for a talk to be given at the firm’s training weekend. I’ll do better than that, said John, I’ll do the talk for you – and so he did – giving up his Saturday morning to address 200 lawyers on how they should treat clients. And I’m not sure how he did it but he managed to get in the trick of ripping up the bill of lading – I’m not sure what that had to do with anything he was saying but he did it anyway and everybody seemed to think it very relevant.

Nothing was too much trouble for John where any of his friends were concerned.

And outside of marine insurance John was just as talented: singer, comedian, painter, after dinner speaker and then in his later years an expert witness, a business coach to a variety of businesses, a lay preacher, lecturer at Liverpool JMU. And just what did his Veterinary Practice have to do with Marine Insurance!

One gets the impression that with the possible exception of basketball, John would have been a success at anything he wanted to do.

And he did all those things with a passion and a love of life, a zest that was completely infectious.

Outside of business and his other professional pursuits, John’s big passions were his family and his football, as I’ve alluded to earlier.

The happiness he enjoyed with Jill was obvious to anyone he spoke to. John could make a holiday on a pig farm with Jill sound like Nirvana! - to many of you that may sound as if it came out wrong but Jill will know what I mean. His pride in Alison and Scott was never far from his lips, and he was always first to sing their praises and tell of their successes.

Get him on the subject of football and particularly Liverpool and you really could write the rest of the day off. John’s love of football made him a conspiracy theorist as he was convinced that Sir Alex Ferguson and Sky TV were in league with the News of The World and that on the eve of a game between Liverpool and Manchester United, Fergie would bribe the media to unveil another invented scandal about Liverpool. And anyone who heard him on the subject will know he was absolutely serious. I remember going to Old Trafford with John in 1999 to see Liverpool v. Manchester United – FA Cup 3rd round. Four sousers and we agreed that being scousers we would keep our mouths shut. Now you’ll immediately appreciate the irony of that – John Davies keeping his mouth shut! Anyway Michael Owen scored in the second minute and John couldn’t control himself, our cover was blown which made for an very uncomfortable 2 hours that followed. He loved to beat Man United – sadly we didn’t that day as David Beckham scored the winner in the 7th minute of Fergie time.

And it was in the world of football that we became married for 10 years. For reasons I won’t bore you with we ended up with one more season ticket at Anfield than we needed. I offered the ticket to John – who welcomed it. Of course it was not possible to change the owner’s name on the ticket and as the tickets were in the name of my ex wife Moira, John has officially been Mrs Moira Jackson in Liverpool FC’s eyes for the last ten years.

I said earlier that this address was a joint effort and at the risk of repetition and in an attempt to sum up John, I think I can do no better than read out some words prepared by John’s old friends from Commercial Union days –

All the heads from the Old Commercial Union at Moseley Street have got together to put some of their best and fondest memories of Johnny D a.k.a Diddy Davies.

He interviewed the majority of us and all our initial interviews for Commercial Union became mini one to one sessions covering Utmost Good Faith, Marine Insurance Act 1906, the Duration of Transit as well as songs from Les Miserables.

John was so passionate about his work and Marine Insurance it was difficult not to catch some of that infectiousness from him.

Through the 1990s, much of John’s life was spent on the train from Blackrod to Manchester (or so it seemed) where he would leave home at 6am and not arrive in the office until 9.58am following leaves on the line, sheep at the level crossing and the only station in Lancashire that had snow and ice in July!

His entrance to the office signalled by the crashing of double doors, briefcase flying through the air quickly followed by a scouse voice and the click of Cuban heels.

Many an Underwriting file was lost in transit and found its way onto the train and we often received phone calls from British Rail asking Commercial Union to reclaim their “lost luggage” from the Blackrod to Manchester rail line.

John was responsible for training so many of us and also those who went on to pastures new – mainly the RSA! We can say hand on heart that he has probably trained at least 50% of the juniors in the Marine insurance market (i.e. those under 45 years of age!).

He has set up the Marine Training Academy, written training material and books all about his beloved Marine Insurance.

Even through his very short retirement, he never really stopped working, he was still eager to learn, studying and tutoring at Liverpool John Moores University, his lay preaching and the Vets – spreading the word…..! and we all know that John liked to talk……! Liverpool lectures, Manchester Marine Insurance Association Dinners (this talk is still referred to as the best that we have ever had!), Preston Chartered Institute and BACS – no venue or audience too big or too small everyone who met him always remembered him.

John was to us a one in a million character, manager, stage act, comedian, trainer and friend who dearly loved his work and not a day went by in the office when he did not mention how proud he was of Alison and Scott as well as how happy he was with Jill made only complete by the arrival of his first grandchild, Daniel.

I hope those words sum up John Davies – insofar as any can.

A small man but a man gigantic in talent, humour, love of life and humanity. An ordinary man who did extraordinary things.

He will be sadly sorely missed.

Peter Jackson – 13th August 2010

P.S. And If I’d known the Minister was going to start with a joke, I’d have told the one about the Pearly Gates, one of John’s favourites.