It was very saddening to hear today that Ted Rogers died on Saturday. Not the Ted Rogers from the TV but the man many in Crawley think of as “the” Ted Rogers.  I did not know him very well, having only met him properly in the last couple of years, but I had seen him around ever since moving down here – he was very unmissable with his second world war scars still prominent.
In fact that is a bit of an understatement. He was terribly burned in the war and had extensive surgery, but somehow just shrugged it all off and in the 70’s he built his own boat and set off around the world with his family, ending up shipwrecked in the Bahamas or somewhere like that.
In his time Ted was an active trade unionist, and right to the end he was campaigning. Just before his 90th birthday I was at a meeting of the Crawley Campaign Against Racism with him and he was as committed as ever, displaying a passion and intelligence putting those of us half his age to shame.
A few years ago he wrote a book, the story of his life, that has been recommended to me several times. I never did get round to reading it; perhaps I shall. If it is half as good as everyone says it is then it will be a good read.
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