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Jack Slater (1934-2017)

Jack was born on the 24 May 1934 in Ashton-under-Lyne and he was raised
and educated in the Park Bridge area. Jack was not fond of school; he loved
the knowledge side, but not the structure of being told what to do.

Jack joined the Lancashire Fusiliers and as a result travelled widely. Then he
had various jobs, he was a truck driver; taxi driver in Australia where he lived
for 20 years returning to the UK at the age of 40 and training as a psychiatric
nurse. He gained a position at Tameside general Hospital where he stayed
untilhe retired.

Jack met his wife Kath at the hospital and she also was a psychiatric nurse.
They were married on 30 March 1983. Jack moved in with Kath and her son
Paul in Dukinfield. On 28 March 1984 they had a daughter, Emma, and the
family was complete. A few years later the family moved to Manor Road in
Oldham, and this is where Jack remained until his passing.

In the days before computers Jack was Emma's answer to GOOGLE, his
knowledge was so vast. Jack was a prolific writer to Guardian - always
pointing out inaccuracies of their print. He wrote to Tony Blair, David Atten-
borough - telling him that 'he didn't know his coconuts'. He wrote to Alan
Titchmarsh about various gardening issues, to be honest he wrote to
everyone, when he thought they were wrong!!

One of his claims to fame was in 2004 when he helped to identify a Maple Tree
thought by the Forestry Commission to be the biggest in the country and
incredibly rare. He struck up a pen-pal relationship with Eric Partridge, who
wrote books about English Language "Slang". And he got a few citations in
The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.

Jack was a long serving secretary of Oldham Microscopical and Natural
History Society, which he referred to with affection as the Muck and Worm
Club! He did a bit of bee keeping at Park Bridge Allotments, and until very
recently, he was Chairman of Pennine Gardening Group. Emma found a
birthday card the group sent to him, it had a cow on the front and inside it read
"Best wishes from your loyal herd!" He was a regular volunteer with the
Oldham Archives Service and attended every natural history event at Gallery
Oldham.

He was a good supporter of The Northwestern Naturalists' Union and was, as
usual, at this year's AGM on 4 March.

Sadly Jack passed away on 25 March 2017 at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

[Much of the above was taken from the eulogy that was read at Jack's funeral.]

Article by Courtesy of North West Naturalists Union and Patricia Francis