Tribute to Jim (Titch) Passmore

A tribute to Jim (Titch) Passmore

Jim was brought up in East Dean on the Goodwood estate, his father worked for the estate so Jim was always on the farms and around machinery, he really was a country boy.

He joined W L West & Sons in September 1976 as our site engineer at our original location in Midhurst. Having worked in a toy factory in Lavant where he was their engineer for a number of years, he then had a couple of years at Beanstalk Shelving before coming to us.

Jim was old school, called a spade a spade, thought in depth about how to solve a problem and came up with a solution, not all successful! In his nearly 45 years with our company, he has been instrumental in the installation of most of the machinery installations that have taken place in the business.

He oversaw moving and re-installing all the machinery in 1986 when we moved from Midhurst to Selham. He was a key player right to the end, his last major job, and probably one of the biggest, was in August 2020 when we installed a new sawmill, all 45 tonnes of it. He certainly had a sweat on that week.

Jim was a true engineer, there really wasn’t many things that stumped him, he could turn his hand to most things, whether repairing or fabricating. At the age of 80, there were many things that I stopped him doing, but turn my back and he’d be back doing them!!

Some of you may wonder why, at 80, Jim was still working? Well, quite simply, he couldn’t sit still. He had to be doing something, whether working 3 days with us, doing bits on the farm at Heyshott or working on his vintage tractor collection with his nephew, always doing something. So as long as he was fit, we let him continue.

As well as being our engineer, Jim was a friend and although he wouldn’t think twice about speaking his mind, once he done that he would move on, never a grudge held.

His daughter said to me that they felt he had three families. His own at home, us at WLW and those on the farm, a lovely sentiment.

Jim was very much a key player in our business and we all will miss him very much.

Keep tinkering with your tractors Jim.

Jim (Titch) Passmore 17^th October 1940 – 13^th June 2021

Dave West

W L West & Sons Ltd is a timber merchant and sawmill business with 150 years of experience. We provide a wide range of air-dried oak and kiln-dried oak timber products and supplies. We also build and install custom projects for our customers.

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