Francis Merry Cave (known as Merry) died on 21 August 2012 aged 96.
He was born in Essex on 16 September 1915 and moved to Boston when he was a few months old. He initially attended St Thomas’ School, moving to Park Board School in order to take the scholarship exam. He achieved the second highest score in the county and was awarded a
scholarship for free grammar school education at Boston Grammar School. At
BGS he passed all his exams with "good" or "credit" marks but he was more interested
in sport than study and played football and cricket for the school and later
for the old boys.
Leaving school he became an apprentice at the chemists
Bailey and Alexander (Mr Alexander was chairman of the school governors) but
Merry did not like the hours of work or rate of pay so left after 4 years in
1937. He worked briefly at the Ministry of Labour as a clerk before being offered
employment with more opportunities and scope at Doughty-Goole Fertilizers Ltd
in Lincoln as a salesman, and stock and wages clerk. He covered the Boston and
district round on his bike to begin with. His gregarious nature suited the job.
When entering the RAF he wrote that he knew Latin and French and had knowledge
of combustion engines from a course and as a hobby. He was stationed at Acklington, Northumberland as a driver, later moving to Coningsby after an accident.
After the war Merry worked for Fisons Fertilizers for a while and then joined the smaller, locally owned company Sam Fletcher Ltd, based at Long Sutton and later
Holbeach. He covered the Boston area, visiting markets such as Spalding, Sleaford
and Boston where he had a mobile office like a shed on wheels in the Market
Place on Wednesdays.
Merry's hobbies were
painting and wood-turning, playing the piano or organ and snooker, but his main
love was golf. He became an honorary member of Woodhall Spa Golf Club and played
regularly until he was 91. He won various competitions, some more than once, over his 64 years of membership. He had
many friends there.
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