Jack Wand MBE

1925 - 2013

One of the best known names in Bourne during the 20th century was that of Jack Wand, a man who overcame a childhood disability to establish a thriving family business that at some time must have supplied every home in Bourne with a television or radio set, an electric kettle, iron, oven or refrigerator, yet still found time to raise a family and to help and entertain numerous gatherings of senior citizens over the years.

John Holliday Wand, always known as Jack, was born at Rippingale, near Bourne, on 4th January 1925 and the family records that he was walking and running at ten months. But this childhood activity was not to last and a year later he contracted poliomyelitis, then known as infantile paralysis, and despite visits to Nottingham Hospital he was sent home by doctors disabled, the illness having completely paralysed his left leg which meant that he could no longer walk unaided and had to be pushed around in a wheelchair with a diagnosis that he would not survive past the age of twenty. But Dr William Johnston, the village’s general practitioner, was more sympathetic and asked the local handyman, Billy Coddington, to make a calliper for the wasted leg and keep it straight, thus enabling Jack to walk again although with some difficulty.

When, at the age of four, he started at the village school, he was taken there in a pushchair for the first few days but soon commandeered a three-wheeled tricycle from his sister, Alma, and was riding that to school, using his good right leg to turn the left pedal and it worked. A bicycle given as a Christmas present for his fifth birthday had been converted by Billy Coddington from free wheel to fixed gear which meant that he could also ride that using his sound leg and soon he was keeping up with the other children for the first time.

Jack was quiet and nervous at school, often taunted about his disability, but he concentrated on his lessons and soon excelled at handiwork, crafts, painting and drawing, and when he was eleven, easily passed the scholarship which gave him a place at grammar school but he never went because of their reluctance to accept a disabled child. He felt betrayed and abandoned but reflection gave him a more confident and positive outlook and he decided that no matter what the physical drawbacks, he would succeed and set about fitting himself for the life of work.

From then on, he took every opportunity that came along to increase his skills. While other children were out playing football in the street, Jack would help his uncle, who worked as a carpenter, and at the age of 12 he had become sufficiently proficient to build and sell chicken coops for villagers, buying the wood himself and keeping the profit for pocket money. But is was not all work and no play and it was at this time that he formed the first youth club in Rippingale to provide village youngsters a place to meet.

He left school in December 1939 at the age of thirteen but was undeterred at having no job and with no prospects because the following morning he started work at the village bakery and was soon becoming skilled in making cakes and pastries. The following year he increased his wages by moving to the bakery at Aslackby although this involved a twice daily cycle ride of three miles to get there. Jack also saved his money and by the time he was sixteen he was able to buy his first motorcycle for £16, so making the journey to work a lot easier.

His baking skills increased but his interest was in electricity and particularly radio at a time when few houses were wired and a wireless in the home was a luxury. When the opportunity came for an apprenticeship in the radio business with Edward Pearce and Company in North Street, Bourne, he grabbed it and was soon learning to repair receivers and charge the accumulators needed to power them. He took over the amplifier rental side of the business, always willing to work long hours if the equipment was needed for an evening dance or weekend garden fete and in 1947 he visited the Radio Olympia exhibition in London, then the shop window for the industry and displaying the latest trends and innovations and promoting the new television sets that were just coming on to the market.

Jack was entranced by what he saw during that trip which was to change his life. Public attitudes towards the new invention were not good and there was a belief that they could harm the eyesight but he saw the possibilities of the new technology and vowed to take the idea back to Bourne. In April 1948, he left Edward Pearce to set up on his own and with his £15 in savings, built his own workshop premises in the back garden with lengths of wood and sections of zinc sheeting purchased from Bourne market and although little more than a shed, it was perfect for his needs. But an alternative income was needed until his new business took off and so he started a taxi and chauffer service, always on call for short journeys or a trip to London, or a car for a wedding or some other special function. Soon the electrical and radio work was coming in and Jack began to feel that he had made the right decision is branching out on his own.

He was also leading a full social life. Jack always loved music and had become a talented pianist, having taught himself to play during his illness and was always ready to entertain at parties, fetes and galas and even providing the accompaniment to the regular ballroom dancing lessons in the village hall. He was also organising dances and parties, often in aid of charity and to raise money for the armed forces comforts funds during the Second World War.

In 1950, he began to build his first television set from scratch, believed to be the first in Lincolnshire, an idea so new that no one knew where he could buy the necessary licence to view it. He had discovered a circuit diagram in the magazine Wireless World and then purchased the individual parts which he assembled slowly and with care ready for the initial switch on. The picture was pale green and black but it was a start.

Jack opened his first shop in Billingborough in 1960, selling hardware and electrical appliances as well as radio and television sets which were now becoming popular and in 1971, he rented the former ironmonger’s premises in North Street, Bourne, for a similar purpose, eventually purchasing both properties outright and soon business was booming.

He married Jessie Mason at the village church at Rippingale on 5th March 1949 and they had three sons, John (1950) and twins Paul and Trevor (1963) and a daughter, Jane (1956). He retired in 1991 but the family name continues over the shop in North Street, run by Trevor who has expanded the electrical service considerably, while John and Paul have pursued their own business interests based on the enthusiasm passed on by their father, while Jane works as a teacher. During the 50 years he ran the business, the J H Wand Group had grown into a large company with a multi-million pound turnover employing more than 60 people and in 1999 he was awarded the MBE in the New Year Honours List for services to the electronics industry.

He and Jessie retired to their bungalow home in Maple Gardens, but still pursued his interest in music although the piano was replaced by an electronic organ which he played at many functions for old people, notably the annual Christmas parties at the Digby Court retirement home and Stanton Close sheltered housing complex. He could also be seen around the town most days, usually in the Burghley Arcade where he and his old friends, many of them in disabled cars and scooters, gathered to chat about the weather and old times, always ready with a cheery wave to friends and acquaintances who passed by for Jack had become very much a part of Bourne.

Jack Wand died at home as he wished on Saturday 12th October 2013, aged 88. The funeral was held at the Abbey Church on Friday 25th October followed by cremation at Peterborough. The public notice posted by the family in The Local newspaper said simply: "Husband, Dad, Grand-Dad and Great Grand-Dad, loved by all. Will be greatly missed."

REVISED OCTOBER 2013

See also

The J H Wand Group     Roadphone Ltd