Tributes to son of former skipper of famous Hull trawler who has died aged 104

George Eric Tharratt, who was known as Eric, went from farming into pharmaceuticals and spent 46 years with Hull firm Smith & Nephew.

But he never lost his love of the sea and, with his daughter Pat, made the first public donations to the campaign to bring the world’s oldest surviving steam trawler Viola back to Hull from the Falklands Islands.

He died peacefully at his home in Gipsyville, on March 29, less than three months before his 105th birthday. Pat said: “Although Dad needed a walking aid for the past two years, he was in good health until just a few days before his passing. He had more pastimes than time to pass and he saw so much in his 104 years.”

Eric became one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Viola Trust, which is trying to raise more than £4m to repatriate her, after meeting historian Dr Robb Robinson, who established the link between Eric’s father and Viola, built in Beverley in 1906.

In World War One Eric’s father was sent to be skipper of a minesweeper at Newhaven and was awarded the DSC for bravery. But he was buried in a pauper’s grave when he died in 1928.

With no welfare state in those days, Eric’s mother said she would have to put his four younger siblings into an orphanage but Eric, then 11, volunteered to go in place of his youngest sister Violet, who was just two. Had she gone into the orphanage under the strict rules at the time she would have had to stay until the age of 12.

At 14 he went to work for a farmer at Thearne which offered bed, board and a small wage. As he reached 18 he asked the farmer to raise his wage to sixpence a week. The farmer agreed but said Eric would have to pay his National Insurance at a ha’penny a week. Eric left the farm to join Smith & Nephew where he stayed for 46 years until retirement.

Pat recalled: “Violet stayed with her mother and Eric, Ken, Dorothy and Len all went to the orphanage, where the children were expected to work. In later years, on our annual visits to the Newland Homes open days, we would skirt the building where Dad had worked in the bakery.”

“I was delighted when Robb got in touch because my father died a pauper and was treated as a pauper, but he had been a skipper until the last week of his life and that is how he should be remembered. Confirmation of his link with the Viola vindicates that.”

His wife May died in May 2015 the day before her 96th birthday. They were married four days after VE day and celebrated their platinum anniversary the week before she died.

Eric was an avid, self-taught gardener and DIY enthusiast who transformed all but one of the homes in which he lived, often helping others to improve their homes. He was fascinated by electronics from an early age and built a radio from bits and pieces he found while still at Newland. He was also a keen photographer.

Pat said: “When asked to explain his longevity, Dad would reply ‘It was having a good wife’".

Paul Escreet, Chair of the Viola Trust, said: “We’re all very sad about Eric’s passing but we have only fond memories of a man who lived a remarkable life until a very good age.

“Eric and Pat were the first people in Hull to donate to the campaign after the Viola Trust was formed – they each donated £500 and the cheques landed on my desk within days of us launching the appeal. “We’ll always be grateful for their support and we are pleased that we were able to help Eric by providing him with historical facts which changed people’s perceptions about his father and saw him rightly recognised as a seafarer, skipper and decorated veteran of the Great War.”

Eric Tharratt’s funeral will take place at 1pm on Wednesday 13 April at Chanterlands Avenue crematorium in Hull.