A family have paid tribute to a much-loved father who started out in the Royal Navy as a teen and went on to work in some of the city's most prominent businesses.
Brian Whileman, who worked at the Colman's factory, Read's flour mill and on the railway, died aged 74 last month and was said to have been "a joker until the end".
Brian was born on June 9, 1949, and spent his formative years growing up in Derbyshire in a village called Tupton.
During his school days, Brian excelled in English literature and language and was a keen singer – as part of both the school and church choirs – and also took great pleasure in fishing and snooker.
He joined the Navy at 15. After leaving the shore base of HMS Ganges in Ipswich as a mechanical engineer he joined HMS Hermes and travelled the globe including to South Africa and Australia.
Upon leaving the Navy he set up home in Norwich where he met his wife Shirley, who had two daughters, Kim and Debbie, that Brian took on as his own.
Living in the city centre, they had two children together, Dawn who arrived in 1984 and Kerry in 1986.
Kim Skipper, 47, one of Brian’s daughters, said: “He always remarked that he had four daughters and could always be heard joking about being back of the queue for the bathroom!
“We holidayed in the UK staying close to home, we all have lots of memories from weekends in Caister and Hemsby.
“We would drag him around the shops and then finish up in Joyland on the snails.”
But one memory that the whole family recalls Brian retelling is dancing with Shirley in the Blackpool Tower ballroom.
But perhaps the most loved and talked about quality Brian had was his sense of humour.
Kim continued: “He loved to tease his children, he would always try and distract us so he could pinch our ice cream.
“But his favourite was putting a plastic spider in the bath for us to find.”
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Brian spent 17 years working at the Colman’s factory, on security, and is said to have really loved the job.
He later moved to Read's flour mill, but didn’t much enjoy his time there so quickly moved to the railways.
He worked his way up to the role of conductor and would spend the rest of his working life on the trains, retiring with 23 years of service under his belt.
Kim said: “Brian enjoyed his retirement, he took that time to indulge his passion for singing, amateur dramatics, pool and chess.”
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Brian’s family also remembers him starting his own brewery in the garden shed, where he produced beer that was way too strong.
Kim said: “His beers blew our heads off, they tasted nice, but I don’t know if he meant for them to be that strong.
"I think really, he just did it for some peace and quiet.”
Brian was honoured to walk Kim down the aisle at Norwich Cathedral in 2021 when she married Chris Skipper, who he was very fond of.
Brian died on Saturday, July 22 during his sleep after a short battle with pancreatitis and colitis.
His service took place at Norwich Cathedral on August 14 where his coffin was draped in a naval flag. He left in a horse-drawn carriage as a bugler played the Last Post.
Kim added: “He would have been blown away with the service, it really was an honour to witness it, just as it was an honour to know him.”
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