Jim was my godfather and I unfortunately only met him a handful of times but I remember them in great detail! My father and Jim were in the RAF together and I heard a lot about Jim and Sheila.

We visited Jim, Sheila, Sarah, Simon and Joanne, at 7 Hough Green, for a few days around August 1970. I must have been 6 years old, I think that I slept in a downstairs bunk bed and was noticeably younger than everyone else. I was allowed to go in the boot of Jim’s Ford Cortina estate automatic for a trip to the Horse Shoe Pass... I should remember the beautiful scenery but actually I really remember fig roll biscuits! I still love them today!! We also went to the Severn Valley Railway, and I’m still a rail enthusiast!

Roll on a few years (1979) and I hadn’t seen Jim all that time but on a school trip to the Model Engineering Show, Wembley 1980, just as we were leaving, I saw someone that I thought could be Jim. So I plucked up courage, found this man in the crowds and politely introduced myself… I was in-luck, it was Jim. I think that both of us where as surprised as each other.

Roll on yet more years (2004) and I was able to take my 2 year old son, Cameron, to see Jim and Sheila. Jim dug out a wind-up tin train toy for Cameron to see but the model actually took me back to 1970… it is funny how memories are triggered.

So fig biscuits are actually ‘Jim Cooper biscuits’, I’m a Chartered Engineer, I love the countryside and love trains… not a bad legacy Jim Cooper!

Best wishes to Sheila, Sarah, Simon and Joanne.