George Cocks RIP

George Cocks (right) with (l-r) Peter Wexham, Reta Cocks and Mike King

George Cocks, known in Leigh as “Reta Deal’s Husband” died in July aged 92. George helped raise funds for Endeavour and worked on her in Thames Marina repainting her hull and decks.

An Eastender, the Cocks family evacuated to Leigh during the War when he was 15 years old. In time he worked in London docks driving cranes unloading ships from  around the world.

He married Reta whose father, Joe owned Endeavour. Dock work became scarce so George set up as a painter and decorator in Leigh. But before that Reta asked him to help father Joe whose mate had fallen ill.

Sometime later George described his worries about this new job. “Trawling and tackling all the other jobs on-board like getting the net overboard, steering, retrieving the net and cooking the shrimp took time and skill. Now I am no stranger to sea-going ships and have been on hundreds, although nearly all were securely tied to the quay.  Being a dock crane driver and working in the holds of ships, the thought of trawling for shrimp was daunting for me. After about four weeks I was gradually getting used to the work and was learning how to do different jobs.”

George was aboard when Endeavour was guard ship for Channel swimmer Margaret White as she trained in the Thames for the big event. He was also present when actress Peggy Mount had a trip aboard.

He also had near misses in fog banks and like many a fisherman was aboard when the nets caught a bomb!

George was an enthusiastic supporter of Endeavour and regard the boat as a memorial to his father-in-law, Joe. When Reta became ill George took care of her in their Old Town cottage. He loved reading about steamships and hearing tales from Endeavour’s crews as they sailed the Channel, Thames and east coast.

Trustee Peter Wexham was George's brother-in-law. He said: “George is a sad loss to the boat and his family, children, Linda and Steven and grandchildren and great grandchildren.”