Sir Leon Britten presents Vin with an Honorary Degree

South Bank's second most famous son, Vin Garbutt, also attended St.Peter's and later wrote and performed a song about Wilf.

Vin Garbutt, singer / songwriter, penny whistler and brilliant raconteur, was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts degree on the 30th of December 2001 at Teesside University for services to music and to the region of Teesside.

This followed being voted 'Best Live Act in Britain' at the Radio 2 Folk Awards earlier in the year.

At the degree ceremony in Middlesbrough Town Hall, the Master of Arts award was presented by Sir Leon Britten and Vin was accompanied by his family, who were bursting with pride. Vin was absolutely thrilled and said of the degree award, "This is absolutely terrific. It's a great honour for a Teesside lad who left school without passing too many exams."

Vin has been on the music scene for 35 years. He is one of the busiest artists on the roots scene, and as well as an army of devoted fans in Britain, he has collected admirers around the world. Indeed, in his home area, Vin is known as "Teesside's Ambassador of Folk", a title bestowed upon him by the press when, back in 1977, he became the first British folk artist to be invited to tour Australia.

Isn't it strange that all the "Achievers" went to St. Peter's Schools? Dan Pluck reckoned it was because of the sense of discipline instilled in them.- Surely there must have been others? I did hear that the person who writes speeches for Ian Duncan Smith comes from South Bank but - I mean! Conservative! Is there a Slaggy Islander you would like to nominate for inclusion to "The Achievers" Page.

I'd like to add a word from Bill Sullivan who took me to task over the Pete Betts song "They don't write them like that anymore" (since corrected).
Bill writes:
There's another line in it that goes
"A bored audience is watching while Kenny is
botching,
And messing up easy card tricks," Kenny is Kenny Gatiss, my Nephew, though he is 59 like me. Kenny owns "The Tiger" in Normanby. He has spent a
lifetime involved with Boys Clubs and particularly Grangetown. The Tigers were the Grangetown Boys Club football team.
His Pub is wall to wall memorabilia. He is a long standing friend of Vin Garbut and Pete Betts. When I went to see Ken for the Millenium he got Pete and Vin to sing the song for me at a party at Ken's house in Normanby. Go and have a beer with Kenny sometime. He's a fantastic personality.

I laughed like hell when he took me to The Tiger and in his verbal jousting with the more mature ladies in the crowd he would shout at them "Behave
yourselves or I'll ejaculate you!"

He'd been a close friend of Wilf Mannion and Bob Campbell, when they were alive. Bob apparently gave Ken a thumping one time when he was chucking Ken out of somewhere. Ken saw Bob years later when Bob was walking down the street and he was very well oiled. Ken seized the only chance he was likely to get and gave Bob a thumping. Ken said they laughed like hell about it over many a beer.

My sister Mary Taylor and husband Harry Taylor still live in South Bank.
They both worked on TRTB for yonks.
Bill.

Keith proudly displays his award

A little over ten years ago, South Banker Keith Craddy was doing voluntary work for the Council, including delivering talking books for the visually impaired. After some time he realised that he never actually saw any sight impaired youngsters and asked why. He discovered that although most of these kids attended special schools there were no facilities provided for after school hours activities. This struck him as unfair to the kids and he set about doing something to rectify the situation.

After a lot of hard work and hard talking Keith founded the Cleveland Youth Club For Sight Impaired where both sighted and visually impaired youngsters meet and take part in a variety of social activities which include parties and holidays. This club has given a lot of pleasure to many visually impaired kids and led to an increase in confidence.

In 2001 two brothers from the Club, Robert and Peter Bowstead nominated Keith for a Community Champions award which made him intensely proud, especially when he was then short listed! Then, when he was actually given the award, sponsored by Huntsman, he was flabbergasted. The trophy now has pride of place on the mantlepiece and his wife Lynn makes sure it has a regular polishing!

The club, which has members aged five to eighteen, meets regularly at the Teesside Society for the Blind at Stockton Road, Middlesbrough and Keith is now in the process of building a web site for the club.

Robert Thomas Nixon 1939 - 2002

Robert Nixon was a highly rated cartoonist and, incidentally, my wife's cousin although the branches of the family had lost contact. When he died in October his obituary was in various top newspapers and journals. This is what The Guardian had to say:

Robert Nixon

Illustrator and cartoonist who brought comic characters to life

by Paul Gravett
Thursday November 7, 2002
The Guardian

Long associated with the Beano, the British children's comics illustrator and cartoonist Robert Nixon has died aged 63. During his lengthy career, he drew Roger The Dodger and many more of DC Thomson's famous characters, as well as contributing for 12 years to the weekly comics of rival publishers IPC. His editor at the Beano said that Nixon would have been able to illustrate a note to the milkman and "make it look appealing".

Nixon was born in Southbank, near Middlesbrough, where his father worked in the steel industry. One of six children, he was educated at the Central secondary modern school in Southbank, where his artistic talents were recognised early. He won several art competitions and a scholarship to Middlesbrough Art College, but he was forced to leave without graduating because of his father's death.

In 1955 he got a job in the art department at a printing factory, where he served an apprenticeship as a lithographic artist. He started submitting work to the Beano in 1964 and had his first set of pictures published in April that year in an episode of Little Plum, Your Redskin Chum, first drawn by Leo Baxendale.

Later that year, following the departure of the original artist, Ken Reid, Nixon took over Roger The Dodger. By 1965 he had enough assignments to go freelance fulltime. Nixon proved especially skilled at "ghosting" various styles, while adding his own distinctive cuteness. He inherited Lord Snooty And His Pals in 1968 from Dudley Watkins and revived Grandpa in 1971, as well as drawing Esky Mo and Captain Cutler for Sparky.

In late 1972, he left Thomson's to join IPC. Nixon proved invaluable, taking over successful series and originating bizarre characters of his own. At IPC, he signed his own work in contrast to Thomson, where company policy meant he had to work anonymously. He enjoyed drawing mildly macabre horror humour, an IPC speciality inspired by the Addams Family and the Munsters television shows, in new titles like Monster Fun and Shiver And Shake. Nixon continued such regulars as Hire A Horror, about a mad monster agency, and the bolt-necked buffoon Frankie Stein. He also visualised the giant boy gorilla Kid Kong, adopted by short-sighted Granny Smith, and Gums, a parody of Jaws starring a shark who is always losing his dentures.

Other fondly remembered series include his lavish medieval romp King Arthur And His Frights Of The Round Table, which helped launch the comic Whoopee in 1974, and the surreal eco-comedy Family Trees, about a gang of trees always on the run from humans.

Shortly after Euan Kerr became editor of the Beano in November 1984, he approached Nixon to resume some of his former strips, but Nixon did not want to have a foot in both camps and declined. The following week, however, Nixon lost several IPC assignments and, wary of his prospects there, he returned to the Beano - and to Roger The Dodger - in January 1985. On May 4 1985 Nixon created the look of the "enfant terrible" Ivy The Terrible, his favourite character. In the 1990s, he also drew Korky The Cat in the Dandy and illustrated merchandise from jigsaw puzzles to Easter Egg boxes.

Nixon also drew the newspaper strips, The Gems, about a gang of children (from 1977) and Parkie the park keeper (from 1982) in the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette. He illustrated cartoon greeting cards for the Noel Tatt Company and joke books written by Giles Brandreth. For his own pleasure, he painted in oils, watercolours and pastels.

He is survived by his wife Rita, and his children Paul, Tony, Wendy and Catherine.

Robert Nixon, comics illustrator and cartoonist, born July 7 1939; died October 22 2002"

And, I might add, a South Bank Achiever.

My thanks to Paul Gravett and The Guardian Newspaper.

Robert Thomas Nixon [1939 - 2002] - Filling in the gaps.

(Robert's daughter Catherine has put together a website of her father so that his work will never be forgotten and this biography of Bob is taken from that - so click on the link and see the rest. There is also a piece on the PLUGS page. Dick.)

Robert Thomas Nixon (Bob Nixon) was born in South Bank, Middlesbrough, in North Yorkshire on July 7th, 1939. He was the fifth of six children born to Arthur Nixon and Phylis Thompson. Robert's mother Phylis worked as a housewife while his father worked locally as a steelworker. As a child, Robert spent much of his time drawing and sketching, and his artistic skills were recognised when he was seven years old by teachers at Cromwell Road School which he attended in South Bank. During his early years as an artist, and supported by teachers at the Central Secondary Modern School (Victoria Street, Southbank), Robert won several art competitions and a scholarship to Middlesbrough art college in 1955 when he was sixteen.

Although his time at art college was cut short by the death of his father, Bob gained employment locally as a lithographic artist and left in 1965 to pursue his career as a full-time cartoonist, initially for DC Thomson's of Dundee. During this transition Robert met and married Rita Kelly and after living in Middlesbrough for several years they moved to Guisborough in Cleveland where they raised their four children - Paul, Tony, Wendy and Catherine.

In 1972 Bob left Thomson's, selling his work to Fleetway publishers - the comic division of the International Publishing Corporation (IPC) - for the next 13 years before returning to Thomson's in 1985 - where he was employed until his death in 2002. Whilst self-employed, Bob worked for several publishers designing greetings cards, joke book covers and illustrations, and company logos etc.

Working from his home in Guisborough, Bob enjoyed his life as a cartoonist for over 35 years, and is best known for his work in Dandy, Beano, Whoopee, Monster Fun, and Shiver & Shake comics, 'ghosting' many popular comic characters such as 'Lord Snooty' , 'Roger the Dodger', 'Korky the Cat', 'Frankie Stein', and bringing to life his own creations, including 'Kid Kong', 'Gums', 'King Arthur and his Frights of the Round Table' and 'Ivy the Terrible'. Click here for links to comic websites.

In addition to his skills as a cartoonist, Bob also enjoyed drawing and painting for his own pleasure. Using pastels, oils, watercolours, inks, pencils, and scraper-boards, Bob developed unique styles in surreal and fantasy art, art for children, landscapes and other scenes of nature.
This is an opportunity to see and purchase a selection of Bob's artwork that for many years, only family members and close friends have been fortunate enough to enjoy. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

See Link.