My father, Don Love, who has died aged 93, lived an inspirational patchwork of a life.
He was born in Birmingham, third of four sons of Nellie, a nurse, and Arthur, a soldier who was later a bootmaker. Don left school early, and worked briefly as a clerk in a motorcycle factory before the outbreak of the second world war. Then he joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and spent seven years in Africa. There he developed a healthy disrespect for authority and a love of reading Shakespeare, which kept him going when on his own with only signalling equipment for company.
On his return to Birmingham, Don explored different ways of earning a living, including teaching, racing greyhounds and working in the theatre, plus work with the child drama expert Peter Slade. In 1950 he married Wynne Luxton. They had three children, and Don eventually settled down to working as a local government officer in Warwick.
However, he always had a play “on the go” and was praised by the playwright Christopher Fry for his portrayal of Thomas Mendip in a local production of The Lady’s Not for Burning. Seconded in the 1960s to the Midland Road Construction Unit in Leamington Spa, Don used his ability to get things done against the odds to contribute to land acquisition for high profile schemes, including Spaghetti Junction. However, being Don, he wanted more.
He had taken up pottery as a hobby, and had developed his craft to such an extent that he decided to work at this full time. When he and Wynne separated in 1976, he set up a pottery near Stratford-upon-Avon; some of his best customers were members of the RSC, and he retained friendships from these times for the rest of his life. In the mid-1980s Don returned to Africa to run a pottery in Kenya, and on his return settled near Stratford with his partner Lin, with whom he lived happily for 14 years.
Don stopped potting close to his 80th birthday, but developed three new ways of expressing himself; training as a hypnotherapist, becoming a Reiki master – which sat well with his Buddhist and Taoist principles – and writing poetry. Just before he turned 90, his friends organised a reading of his work in London, and in 2010 had a collection privately published.
Don is survived by his children, Jeff, Alison and me, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
