Peter Angwin

One late afternoon in early May, not two moths ago, PA and I were sat alone together in the Star. I had just heard that Nigel Williams had just passed away after a long and sad struggle against his illness. I had called in to see PA, as I often did when something important had happened in my life, to see if it was true, if he knew any more than I did and to talk it over with him. We sat there silently together, both of us with a lump in our throat and a tear in our eye mourning the loss of our dear friend Nigel.

PA was not very well then, he looked quite pale and he had been in hospital for a few tests, we all knew that he was pretty poorly, but none of us knew at the time, how ill he really was. We all felt that once they found out what was wrong, then they would get it sorted out and soon he would be well again. How could anyone have imagined that only seven weeks later, this could have happened.

That our dear friend Peter Angwin, that Big, Friendly, Quiet, Wise, Man, would be gone.

We are all so shocked by the suddenness of it all, and we are all so desperately sad by the tremendous loss we feel.

But desperately sad as we are, we must all be thankful that this suddenness that has shocked us all so much, has saved PA from any long term suffering. For if his illness had lingered on, PA would have suffered, much, much more from his pain, and worried and fretted much, much more for his family and his friends.

And he would have fretted, because he loved his family and he loved his friends. And friends he had in plenty, not casual friends, fleeting acquaintances, but real friends, hearty friends, friends that cared, friends that were true. PA made so many true friends because he really cared about them and he was always there for them when they needed help. Whether it was advice, raising money for some local charity, the use of the Snug for some meeting of some organisation in the Town. The Gig Club, Lafrowda Day, The Christmas Lights, The Ordinalia, The Slipway Association, Cape Singers, The Cricket Pavilion, Feast, New Years Eve, you name it , Peter, and Rosie, and the Star would somehow be involved, in the thick of it, supporting it. And that help was always free, no strings attached, never did he seek fame or fortune for his deeds, he helped because he wanted to help.

As Alec, from the Golden Lion in Padstow said to me on the phone last week, Peter was - Mr St Just!

And that is exactly right, but he didn't love St Just, just because it was St Just, after all PA was a St Buryan man. No he loved St Just for its people, for the friends he knew and loved there. Modest and unassuming to the end, PA did all he did for St Just, for the best and most honourable reason of all, because he cared.

I didn't really know PA before he moved to the Star with Rosie and the girls just before Christmas in 1984. I can't remember whether their first New Years Eve was particularly notable for the fancy dress on that occasion, in fact most of New Years seemed to have blurred into a confused memory, but how could anyone forget the parade of characters that Pete and Rose and the girls gave us over the years, each one perfect and hilarious, the Pope, was Henry the eighth in there somewhere, and for me one of the most unforgettable was that Big Black Mamma - "I Haint serving no beer in dis skirt"

PA and Rosie and the Star very quickly became a real focal point for St Just.

I can't remember when Diddly Dee night first started its regular Monday slot at the Star, but this was one of the first big gestures that Pete and Rose made in establishing the Star as a bit of a music pub. (I don't know how much sleep PA lost, but it can't have been easy worrying about how much beer he was giving away in support of Monday night, and when you work it out, it's probably quite a few thousand pints by now.)

Since then the Star has built up quite a reputation for hosting regular music nights, employing and supporting many local musicians, many of whom became his friends. And then in 1997 it also became the regular home for Cape Singers. (One or two pints there too as it turns out, on many a Friday night over the years.)

In September of 1989 Cape Cornwall Gig Club was formed. Peter, a founder member, became a trustee of the club along with Bryan Warren, Dougie Alford, Gordon Bones and Anthony Holman. Peter stayed very active in the gig club for many years, supporting all sorts of fund raising events, and later became a strong and active chairman.

Another cunning plan dreamt up by PA is the now legendary Star Inn mystery coach trip! A coach, more often than not supplied by a certain Mr. Thomas Thomas of St Buryan, would arrive outside the Star around mid morning, normally on or around Peter's birthday. After a short delay - usually about three quarters of a pint, the pub would empty its customers onto the coach, the last aboard always being PA with Clipboard in hand and knowing grin on face, and off the coach would go, disappearing up Fore Street and on to a set of public houses at various secret locations spread across different parts of Cornwall, usually not to return the same day. Each one of these trips was a source of many stories, none of which are forgotten and no doubt we will here more than one of them before the day is out, judging by the number of participants here today.

In the late autumn of 1996, a small group of us, after an exceptionally good Newquay Weekend on the Scillies, decided to try and start a singing group to revive some pub singing in St Just. After a determined but luke warm start, I came and had a chat with PA about it in January of 1997. He said "Don't worry boy we'll get it going, I'll book the Church rooms for next Friday night and I'll put the word around" and that was the beginning of Cape Singers as we know it now. On the first night we doubled our numbers to 14 and we were off!

PA had done it again, he was unanimously voted in as Chairman, which he has remained to this day, and from there we went from strength to strength. PA ordered a bunch of red clip folders to put our music in, Rosie designed a Logo for our tee shirts and that was that. Over the years we have had our ups and downs but through it all PA has been our rock, our inner strength, he has kept our morale at a maximum and our problems at a minimum. I honestly think that we would have faltered if not for Peter. And if not for Peter and his friendship with a local musician that still plays in the Star today, Harry Glasson, we would probably never have learned some of the great songs that we all now take for granted, particularly "Harry's Song for Cornwall" which is now sung as often and with as much enthusiasm, as any traditional classic, in pubs all over Cornwall.

And so with Peter at the helm we went from strength to strength and we sung all over the shop. Following in the wonderful tradition of PA's Mystery tours, we sung around the county making many new friendships and strengthening old ones. And we didn't just confine ourselves to local coach trips, we travelled many times on the Scillonian to the Scillies, starting with a long weekend trip in 1998. The South West Coast of Ireland in 2000, Australia in 2001, Dublin in 2002 and Brittany in 2003. As with the mystery tours I mentioned earlier, you can imagine the stories we have to tell about all these trips to all these other places.

For me, I have to say that the Australia trip has to take the pride of place, just because it was so bold. I know that it was a difficult time for PA and Rosie, as Rosie was not well and PA was very worried about leaving her behind, but Rosie, bless her, gave PA her blessing and told him to go, and I can only imagine how hard that was for her to do, and I know Rosie, because he told me, how much PA appreciated the way you sacrificed your own feelings to let him go. And go we did, to the other side of the world, to meet a whole new bunch of friends in a whole new country.

PA just enjoyed everything about Cape Singers, he loved singing obviously, but he also loved organising the trips and visits, he loved meeting new people and making new friends and he loved meeting up with old friends. And, as the years went by, he developed a new talent that none of us would have guessed at, he learned to recite poetry. PA somehow latched on to a small number of very unique, very Cornish Poems. He practised and practised them until he could recite them in a way that was literally entrancing. He worked out a timing and delivery worthy of the most accomplished of actors or the most professional of public speakers, he was impeccable. Ask Mathew how he once quietly asked him to throw a glass of water over him at an exact point, after a precise word in the poem about the Lighthouse Keeper. To stand on the same stage as PA during one of his poem recitals was an honour and a privilege. To watch every single person in the audience hang on his every word, to watch them snigger and smile at all of the asides and the pictures he painted with his words and then finally to watch them erupt, explode, throwing their heads back with laughter as he finally hit them with the perfectly delivered punch line. And we too, we who had heard those same poems so many times, would laugh just as much, every time.

And of all the places we went, of all the people we met, I am convinced that the place where Peter enjoyed singing the most, was the Star, his home.

And that home of his, in so many ways was also a kind of home to many of us. Were we felt we had a special place, with Pete and Rose and Becky, and with our friends. A warm welcoming place, full of fun, familiar and comforting. A place to go when something sad or bad had happened. A place to go to celebrate. And a place to go where we could ask PA's opinion or advice on something.

How many times have I heard expressions like:-
"Ask PA he might know"
"I wonder if PA knows about that"
"PA might have an idea"
"Check it out with PA first"

And he always would know, quietly, gently he would help you find an answer or steer you on the right path, or sometimes even help you figure out what the question really should be in the first place. Sometimes with hardly a word, sometimes with a knowing look or even just a slight change of expression.

Those expressions, how can a mans face say so mach yet move so little, How many times have we seen a visitor whither under his stern gaze, his thin lipped stony glare. But for those of us that knew him, we could detect that twinkle in his eye and that upward millimetre of movement at the corner of his lips that gave lie to the grin that lay beneath. We knew exactly what that lift of an eyebrow meant, or that slight questioning tilt of the head to the right as he lifted a pint glass to the tap of our favourite tipple.
He knew us so well and we knew him so well and that's why so many of us called him PA, not because his initials were P and A, but because he was, our PA!

And with that last thought I want to finish by asking you to imagine you are in the Star, right now, with PA behind the bar. Peter Angwin, for all the world like a 19th Century Landlord out of a historical novel. His big round face framed with white hair and sideburns. A big friendly man with rosy cheeks pulling pints. The bar all around him, noisy with conversation and laughter. And PA in the middle of it all, listening to it all and loving it all. That's how we should remember PA.

And like every good evening that every one of us has had in the Star, that always comes to an end too soon, so Peter's life too, has come to an end, too soon.

And the only words that I can think of to finish with, shouted out, for all of us to hear, for ever more on a Cape CD, are PA's very own -

Time, Ladies and Gentlemen, Please!