A tribute to Frank

The funeral was held on 13th May for Frank Slaymaker, long-standing member of Holy Trinity, who passed away last month. Over sixty people joined Frank's widow Pari in the church, to pay

tribute and to pray for Frank. The funeral was followed by a ceremony in the churchyard for the interment of Frank's ashes.

A reception took place afterwards in the church hall with a wonderful spread prepared by Joelle and which we know Frank would have loved and many of his friends lingered into the evening remembering Frank.

Below are the moving words that Frank's friend Tom Tennant shared with us during the service.

FRANK  SLAYMAKER

Frank was born at Leominster near Hereford on 3rd January 1929. At the Priory School there, he had planned to become an Accountant but National Service was still in force and he decided to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Frank's middle name was NELSON and I used to joke with him and suggest it would have been better to have joined the Royal Navy.

After initial training at Padgate in August 1948 he did his first solo flight in March 1949. He flew fourteen aircraft types while in the RAF, from the biplane "Tiger Moth" to the propellor driven "Mosquito" and finally the jet powered "Canberra MK PR". Frank's annual pilot's assessment during his time in the RAF was always given as Above the Average. He took voluntary retirement on14th February 1958 after almost ten years service and decided to become a commercial pilot in April 1958 in what was known then as Persia (now Iran), flying twin-engined propellor-driven planes, chiefly the "Aero Commander".

This must have been a happy time for Frank and his wife Pari. Pari had been born and brought up in Iran, had family there and had qualified as a nurse in England. She was recruited to a responsible administrative post in nursing while Frank had a regular job based mainly in Teheran. Through his work and contacts he was able to learn and fluently speak the local language Farsi, which stood him in good stead when they later had to move to Nice. On one occasion I was with Frank and he was greeted by an Iranian friend in quite a long discourse. When I asked him what this was all about Frank said that the friend was just wishing him a good day! There is a record in  Frank's pilot logs of when he flew the Shah of Persia and his family in his light aircraft and taught the Shah how to fly; he told me once how he had had to take over control and prevent the Shah from flying into a hillside!

Frank and Pari had anticipated the change of régime in Iran and they had already bought their apartment in Nice some years before the Shah went into exile. When we first arrived in Nice in 1972 Holy Trinity was strictly run by the Chaplain (whose brother-in-law was the church treasurer) and there was no church council as such. When we returned permanently in 1978 from Menton there was an adhoc church council and Jim Haxton, a retired banker from Canada, had taken over as treasurer, ably assisted by Frank. Jim and Frank worked in tandem for many years putting the church on a more conventional footing and Frank took over when Jim retired. Most days they could be found hard at work at Holy Trinity and it almost became their second home!

Apart from the church Frank was always interested in sport, particularly cricket, and he played football once a week with a group of French friends in Nice. When Ted and Susan Dexter arrived in Nice, Frank spotted Ted immediately; he helped them to settle in and introduced them to Holy Trinity. Frank used to meet for a coffee once a week with four friends from Holy Trinity including Ted Dexter. They used to toss a coin to see who would pay for everyone and Ted didn't pay for nine weeks until the final day before he left for England when he lost and had to pay! Frank is given a mention at the end of Ted's autobiography "85 Not Out", telling how much Frank's friendly welcome had helped Ted and Susan decide to live in Nice.

We will all miss Frank's jokes and great sense of humour, and how one always felt happy and cheerful after meeting him. Thank you Frank for a good life!

Some photos from Frank's life

From top left to bottom right: Frank as an altar boy, Frank at the top right of the photo on pilot training in 1949, Frank and Pari dressed up to the nines, Frank meeting the Shah, Frank as football coach, Frank and Pari celebrating their seventieth wedding anniversary last year.