Eulogy and tributes to Andrew Scadding

Family and friends gathered in the beautiful All Saints Church, Brailsford, Derbyshire, on Friday, 6 March, for the funeral of Andrew Scadding, who worked for many charities throughout his life, including being CEO of the Thai Children's Trust.

Ian Kerr gave the following Eulogy during the service:

John Andrew Patrick Scadding was born in Leeds on 16th October 1948 to Sidney Alan Scadding and Isabella Harrison Paterson Scadding.

The eldest of two sons, his younger brother, Alan, was born in early 1951.

His early years were spent in Castleford but as his father's career in engineering sales progressed, the family moved to Leeds and then Harrogate.

His childhood was happy, sledging in the winter and summer holidays often spent on Arran, where the brothers learnt to fish, climbed their first mountain. They also often visited and were close to their cousins - Jane, John, and Sarah. As a member of the Scouts, Andrew also got involved with walking, climbing, and caving.

Not to say that his was a childhood of leisure. Both his parents had proud Army careers before marriage and life at home was quite strict, with 30 minutes piano practice every morning at 7am, rooms were inspected each morning, mealtimes were to be kept etc., much like other children of that generation. He developed his desire to explore.

At 16, he was dropped in the center of Paris to meet up with his French pen pal. Except he wasn't due to meet his French Pen pal for several days and the hostel where he was supposed to stay until then was closed. He survived by befriending some Americans who provided a room, met up with the French pen pal, Patrice, and came back home several weeks later speaking fluent French (for the rest of his life, he often dreamt in French!)

In 1964, when Andrew who was not terribly interested in playing school Cricket or Rugby, he found, or should I say founded, another way out of Wednesday afternoon sports lessons. Andrew persuaded the headmaster that instead of sport, students could leave school and complete voluntary service in the local community. Within months he was organizing 20 student volunteers, to do things such as looking after disabled people, war veterans and build adventure playgrounds.

In 1967, he gained a place at Cambridge University, reading economics for a year before deciding he was better suited to English. This was no easy task, the switch to English meant catching up on two year's work in one year.

This was made more difficult still as he was busy: he had also founded a group in Cambridge to raise money for Shelter and of course was in the centre of activity! In April 1969, Andrew and a couple of university friends attempted to cross the channel in a 5ft bathtub, which was kept afloat by four oil drums and powered by an outboard motor. The aim was to raise £1000 for Shelter's 'Shelter Week' Campaign. Unfortunately, three miles out of Dover they had to abandon the attempt due to bad weather. The voyage may not have been a success, but the attempt generated a lot of news headlines and was reported around the world. Soon he wanted to do more than volunteer and move onto doing his own charity work. Jay, are you here and anything to add?

In the last year of University Andrew founded Outset with another Cambridge friend, Nick Blake. Outset recruited thousands of schoolchildren, students, and young people to get sponsorship to perform community work in their area, to raise money and help the homeless, disabled and people in need. This is what Nick had to say about their time working together:

Andrew's literary skills provided OUTSET with tremendous impact through the letters, reports and press releases which he wrote that persuaded grant makers, Local Authorities, and many others to give it money, projects, and support. We did not consider what we did as "work" because it was so much fun - his wry sense of humour, his intelligence ,cheerful disposition, and charming ways saw us through the good and not so good times.

Andrew met Sally Richardson at a birthday party in Cambridge in 1970. when she first met Andrew, she wasn't impressed by the gift he'd bought (a wooden puppet where you pulled a string to make its arms and legs rise) and thought it was silly. He remembered that it took him three further attempts of asking her out for her to accept. They were married here in Brailsford Church. They went on the have three children - twins Alan Hamish and John Anthony, and daughter Alice. Sadly, John Anthony died shortly after he was born. The family lived in Essex before moving to Ednaston. The family were never short of pets, over the years there were numerous dogs, horses, a budgerigar or two, guinea pigs, fish, and a cat.

Andrew and Sally had an adventurous life starting a toy business together, taking the family camping across Europe and later caravanning to far flung areas such as Orkney and Shetland. Together they enjoyed horse events, old churches, socialising and eating out. In later years Andrew very much enjoyed his camper van holidays with Linda and Richard, or Hamish, to the Scottish Highlands.

14 years ago, in part to cope with Sally's myotonic dystrophy condition, the family started multi generational living first in Bradnop then Endon. Sally could enjoy their grandchild, Holly, and of course the dogs and horses while Andrew could travel to London knowing that Sally was safe. In turn this arrangement later gave Andrew security and in his last difficult months, family visits, and care. He especially enjoyed the visits to his room by grandchildren Holly and Niamh, who lovingly knew him as PomPom.

I hope I have painted a picture of an Andrew with a full life with many interests. I could have added steam trains, classical music, his vintage Model T and Land Rover, his love of chatting about history and Politics and his truly vast numbers of books…

There are so many people I could have mentioned so forgive me if you are not included here or what follows.

Always a fan of a gadget and new technology, during the 80s Andrew had become very interested in computers and how they could be used to transform charity donor communications which led him back into the charity world as consultant, CEO and trustee.

Now I would like to tell you a little more about Andrew's life in his last 25 years with the world of charity. This is where I came in.

A life of remarkable achievement and one that today lives on especially through three NGO's: Child Rescue Nepal, The Prisoner of Conscience Fund (now the Human Rights Protection Fund) and Thai Children's Trust (now Safe Child Thailand), all represented here today.

Andrew enjoyed his work with charities especially as CEO of the Thai Children's Trust. While Andrew was CEO it flourished with income increasing nearly every year.

One always had the feeling that for Andrew that his work went beyond "enjoyment" to something deeply and personally fulfilling. He loved meeting the kids his work supported and had a deep respect for the priests the Catholic focused charity funded to do the work. There are some wonderful pictures of his beaming smile as the kids sung a welcome when he arrived on his visits. His annual trip around the projects was one of the highlights of his year. Originally this was with Sally who loved travelling to Thailand, and usually with a group of supporters and trustees and very good to have some of you here today.

Crispian, past chair of Thai Children's Trust, paid tribute to his skills and added:

Maybe my favourite memory of Andrew is of him walking fearlessly up Soi 24 in Bangkok, pushing Sally in her wheelchair towards The Lemongrass Restaurant, our favourite. The heat was tremendous, the traffic was fearsome, the pavement uneven, covered with food outlets and electric cables, but Andrew, clad in sandals and open shirt, would stride on regardless, with me following at a safe distance. He would have done anything for Sally; they were a great pair.

15 years ago, this all came home to me personally when I was a volunteer working with a charity rescuing and caring for trafficked children in Nepal. It had a financial crisis that threatened the 70 children in its care.

Andrew took the role of chair and I became a temporary CEO.

Andrew had time for any person or charity who needed his help. One of these charities, The Marfan Trust has just launched a fund in his honour.

We said a sad goodbye in January to a colleague who left an indelible mark on our team. Andrew died on 23 January. He had quietly served as a trustee of our charity for over four years, bringing extraordinary wisdom and experience. Drawing on a lifetime of work across the charitable sector, he guided us through our transition from a registered charity to a CIO, with assured knowledge of finance, charity law, governance, constitutional matters, and the careful recording of decisions.

Here are some of the other comments sent in for this service today : I have selected just a few from the many received to use to attempt to illustrate his life and its breadth:

Steve, from the Anglo Thai Society

Andrew was an absolute tower of strength to me until illness forced him to stand down at the beginning of last year (there are now 3 colleagues carrying out his previous portfolio). In this regard, Andrew never let me down and I will never forget the level of support he gave to both myself and the Society as a whole.

Lynn, CEO of the Prisoners of Conscience Fund

Andrew, let me start by saying how much I love and admire you. You have been such a huge part of my life, both professionally and personally. I learnt so much from you, and still to this day, if I'm up against something challenging, I ask myself what you would do.

I loved every minute of my 22 years at PoC, but the years that you were at the helm as Chair, and guiding us, were my hands down favourites. You were so generous with your time and advice, and the biggest and best cheerleader. The world has truly been a finer place with you in it Andrew, and it will be much poorer without you. I will not be the only one who will miss you deeply and I do trust we will meet again.

Lynn I hope you have internet and are there in Canada listening

Sophie Baker A donor and photographer

I just want you to know that meeting Andrew via POC was life changing in SO many ways - those wonderful trips to Pattaya, but most importantly Child Rescue Nepal whom I have visited very often in Kathmandu and am ongoingly in touch with. I was looking through his old emails last night - and laughing out loud at some of his observations.

Jo Bega Child Rescue Nepal

Andrew took a real punt on me when he chose me as CEO of Child Rescue Nepal - it was my first CEO role. Despite his years of experience, he never lectured me. He quietly supported me to be the best I could be and to trust myself.

Andrew gave me such a good start in the role that I'm still here 10 years later. Even after stepping down as chair, he continued to support where he could, always letting us know he was following the charity's progress. I loved hearing stories about the escapades of his vintage car project!

There is a lot more in all the testimonials I, and the family received which we could have added.

If we are honest Andrew's last year was difficult. Hamish describes it as a "constant whirlwind. … Tough for dad and tough for all his family". Andrew had a great pride in his family and wanted to be nowhere else than with them at home. He often said just how lucky he felt he was. He deeply appreciated how Alice and Dan organised the home to cope with living with his illness and keep him living at home, which is where he wanted to be. Hamish's employer agreed he could take a day off work each week to support him and I was privileged to see just how much Hamish cared for his dad while never knowing how long he had as his health worsened. Alys, Hamish's wife, is a respiratory consultant, and Paddy Fielder (a retired GP), were invaluable in advising the best approach to get the best possible medical care as Andrew's illness rapidly progressed and his condition and treatment became more complicated.

We are thinking today of Andrew's legacy

So, to start here is a thought addressed to Andrew's family from Derek, a friend and who, for a long time, was a nurse at the orphanage in Thailand for the Thai Childrens' Trust:

Please pass on to your grandchildren the legacy of their grandfather and how he changed the lives of thousands of children living halfway around the world.

The family legacy from daughter, Alice: Dad was probably the most intelligent person I will ever meet and extremely interesting. Dad's legacy goes beyond his intelligence and his amazingly interesting life stories. Dad's legacy is kindness, and the positivity, determination and stubbornness that helped save thousands of children's lives and gave them a future.

My own special memory of Andrew is our time spent laughing at our colleagues, the world in general, politicians in particular and of course ourselves.

Thank you, Andrew for your life and that massive legacy! I hope one day to join you and laugh with you again.

Thank you to those who are listening across the world as well as the UK. There are so many family and friends that could be mentioned but sadly we cannot list everyone. But,

Thank you to everyone who visited over the last year - he deeply appreciated all the conversation and kindness.

Thank you to all the carers who looked after him so well and the district nurses who came out day and night to provide treatment.

A big thank you goes to the Dougie Mac team at the Stoke on Trent hospice that provided dad with an enormous amount of support. It's difficult to do them justice in a couple of lines but I honestly don't think we would have coped without them, especially Amanda who often visited several times a week, whatever the weather and was always there for us with advice and support.

And Monica, a Dougie Mac night sitter, who looked after dad when he needed 24-hour care.

And thank you all for being here. I hope you can raise a glass to a great man later today in his memory.

To watch a recording of the funeral see: www.streamfuneral.co.uk/johnscadding