HAROLD's absence from the streets of Wotton-under-Edge has certainly been noticed.

Harold Wood died on December 30, 2004, after collapsing outside the Co-op in Long Street.

The death certificate included bronchitis as a cause of death but Harold also suffered from peritonitis.

Known to most people simply by his first name, Harold was a familiar sight in Wotton, spending a lot of time on a bench near the war memorial and also sitting in Long Street.

He dressed eccentrically, always wearing a skirt and sometimes a dressing gown, decorated with watch chains and medals.

His father, known as Jacky, had fought at the Battle of the Somme in the First World War.

In 1947 Harold was called up for National Service, despite having failed all the physical tests.

He spent the first six months in Gloucester, but when he was sent to Catterick, Yorkshire, he hated the regime.

His sister-in-law, Ada Wood, said: "It was after his time in the Army he had a nervous breakdown - as well as the life, he couldn't cope with being separated from his twin George who was sent to Aldershot."

Ada is the widow of Harold's older brother, Bill, who took after their father, was very bright and went into the Navy, finally settling in Lancashire.

Harold and George had been brought up in Kingswood, with Bill, and parents Jacky and Annie.

They attended the village school, where they were apparently marched around like

little soldiers. The late Cecil Allway remembered Harold and his brother being treated badly at the school, used as errand boys and the butt of jokes.

Harold's mother's influence was strong - she always called them 'my babbies', even when they were grown men, and alternately molly-coddled them and ranted at them.

After the twins left school, they worked at New Mills as bobbin boys - their job was to keep the weavers supplied with full bobbins, and to take away the empty ones.

They returned to Kingswood and the mills after National Service, but then began a series of stays in mental hospitals, predominantly Coney Hill in Gloucester.

George became institutionalised for the rest of his life, apart from some time before he died when he was adopted by an Italian family in Dursley.

Harold worked at Cotswold Collotype, encouraged by Harry Russell, but he soon became restless.

After his mother died in the 1970s, he lived on his own in a house about to be closed down by the council.

In 1992 Harold moved to Dryleaze in Wotton with just one carrier bag. He did not fit in, and after about five years he moved to Cranbourne, Coombe Road.

He started visiting St Mary's Church frequently and the vicar, the Rev Dr John May got to know him. He said: "He was our best churchgoer for several years, and became to us a friend, a companion in prayer and a real colleague."

Dr May became involved in keeping an eye on his domestic life, recently helped by community police officer Tracey Wren and neighbourhood warden Kaz Elliott.

Harold's funeral took place on Tuesday at St Mary's, attended by more than 250 mourners. Wotton Silver Band played and a full choir sang.

Harold and his brothers had all been keen members of the choir at Congregational Church in Kingswood and Harold had been known to 'conduct' the choir at St Mary's in recent years.

Christine Cannon, who sang at the funeral, said: "When my daughter was about nine years old, more than 12 years ago, she and her friends were wary and a little frightened of Harold but they soon got used to him, as a familiar harmless sight around Wotton...."

Dr May's funeral address concluded with the importance of respecting and cherishing people in the community however different they seem.

Harold would have been 76 last weekend.

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