An account of Walter's life by Peter Jewel, read at Walter's celebration event on 25 February 2017.

Walter was born in Munich in 1928, the son of Paula and Erich Bloch. They divorced after one year of marriage, and Walter was brought up devotedly by his mother, in the small town of Wangen, a predominately Catholic community on Lake Constance. It was here that, in 1934, he began school.

By this time the Nazis were in power, and gradually the poison of their propaganda affected everything, isolating Walter and Paula. ‘Is there something wrong with me..?’ he wondered, as fear and hatred grew. When he was 10, Stormtroopers came to the school, saw the ‘Jew bench’ where the Jewish children were separated from all the others, and ordered them out of the classroom: that was his last day of school in Germany.

The synagogue was then burned down and all the Jewish men in the town brutally beaten. Walter’s father Erich was left for dead, and all the others taken to Dachau. From then on, life became intolerable.

Soon after this Paula’s brother Fridolin came from Berlin, and told her of the possibility of getting children to England – without their parents. Fridolin Friedmann was one of the first to accompany children on the ‘Kindertransports’, risking his life and going back to Germany each time so as not to jeopardise the continuation of further transports.

A few weeks later, after a very difficult transition to a strange land, thanks to a cousin of his father who lived in London and who paid the school fees, Walter became a pupil at Bunce Court, an excellent school for German refugee children in Kent. One of the pupils there was Martin Lubowski, who has written to Ruth, apologising to her for the fact that he can’t be here today because of ‘considerable health problems’. But he writes:

“I have particular memories of Walter as very friendly and approachable for a younger pupil….this was most pleasant and helpful to me….I guess his friendly attitude must have remained with him for the rest of his life….”

Two very important things happened to Walter at this time in 1939. First, he became very ill with scarlet fever and had to spend many weeks in an isolation ward. In a strange country, with food he didn’t like, speaking no English, and very worried about his mother who was still in Germany, he felt very alone. But the nurses were very kind to him and taught him some English, and then, convalescing for a month in an English family with neighbouring children, he found he could understand everything and really speak English – ‘it just simply happened’ he said, with characteristic modesty

The second thing that occurred was that his mother, Paula, after great difficulties and just before war broke out, was at last able to get to England. They were very briefly reunited, and then Paula had to go to Birmingham to work as a maid. In the course of the next years she had several jobs in different parts of the country, a long way from Walter. She was not well treated by her employers and was often very lonely.

Fearing a German invasion, the British authorities decreed that no foreigners were to live near the coast, and so everyone had to leave Bunce Court. A run-down estate was found in a village called Wem, in Shropshire. There the school was re-established. There was a farm next to the school, and the pupils often helped the farmers with their work. The ethos of the school was very progressive and everyone helped with its running, cleaning and washing up. Pupils also performed a lot of plays, and it was here that Walter’s love of drama developed, with improvisatory work as well as study of Shaw and Shakespeare – and Magic Flute, making their own sets and costumes. He was a very good mimic too, and imitated all the current politicians – a gift he retained: I heard him do an excellent Winston Churchill.

I think we can actually hear him now: RECORDED EXTRACT 1

After the end of the war, Paula and Walter decided to stay in England. Walter’s uncle Fridolin, his mother Paula’s brother, who had organised the Kindertransports, was living in England too, and he got a job teaching at Warwick school. Paula was working as a housekeeper in Wales, and was very unhappy. So Fridolin suggested she join him in Leamington.

We can hear Walter talking about this: RECORDED EXTRACT 2

Walter passed his Schools Certificate. His first job was at Morris Motors, but he soon moved to Courtaulds as a trainee chemist, studying at night school five evenings a week after work. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1953.

Jim Johnson was a Courtaulds colleague, a member of the “bus crew”, a bus converted into a mobile home which they used for holidays together in the UK.
However, Jim and Walter also went on a walking holiday in what was then Yugoslavia, and Jim tells a lovely story that exemplifies Walter’s acting skills:

WRITTEN MEMORY 1

By the time he was 28 he had become Chief Chemist at Courtaulds’ factory in Newcastle, Australia, and had married his first wife, Anna. He was there for two years, and then returned to England, where his son Martin John Block was born in 1961.

Walter gradually decided he would prefer to work on helping to sort out industrial relations and disputes, having observed how they might be better solved. Courtaulds agreed to his request to transfer, and so began the process of retraining in a number of Courtaulds’ industrial sites, sometimes involving moving house. Ruth Anna – Ru-tee – was adopted by the couple in Preston in 1966. Walter became a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

John Oliver was a trusted colleague and close friend – “What would I have done without John Oliver” Walter always said.

John is here, and I am going to ask him to share some of his memories with us.

LIVE MEMORIES 1

In the 1960s Walter’s home was in Nottingham. This was where Ruth Johns
was based, founding and directing Family First Trust, until she moved to London in 1976 to work as National Director of Action Resource Centre.

The Block and Johns families knew of each other through common work and social interests.

We have a very interesting account of a time in 1975, by Angus Walker, which gives a lovely picture of Walter’s generosity of spirit and of the way Walter and Ruth worked so brilliantly together.

WRITTEN MEMORY 2

Ruth had been a single parent for some years, and Walter’s marriage had also broken up. Events brought them together, they fell in love, and married in 1979. Their friends in common rejoiced with them, including Pauline and Wynn Davies – Walter and Wynn belonging to the same Wollaton drama group. Apart from Ruth’s son Martin, who was 21 when they married, the other children were still teenagers.
At this point it may help to clarify the family names. There are two Martins – Martin B (for Block) and Martin T (for Thomas, Martin Johns’ middle name).

Martin B married Karen Wallace in the late 1980s, and Ruth’s daughter Naomi married Andrew Fisher. Martin T married Martha Fausset. Grandchildren soon started to arrive: Francesca, Stephanie and Gabrielle Block, Tarn and Adam Rodgers Johns, children of Ruth’s son Neil and Louise Rodgers, and Tom, son of Ruth’s daughter Naomi and Andrew Fisher. All came to the Warwick house and filled it with life, and there were also joint holidays.

The year before Walter and Ruth’s marriage, 1978, everyone went to Israel to meet Walter’s extended family. We are absolutely delighted that several of that family have made the huge effort to be with us this afternoon, and we very much look forward to hearing from you in the Open Floor session later.

Walter and Ruth moved to Warwick, to 4 Castle Close. And both their mothers, Paula and Dorothy, had independent self-contained space there, Paula for 11 years, which she said were the happiest of her life. Ruth’s mother Dorothy had died earlier. Her flat was then let out to a succession of young people from all over the world, so there was always a lively international atmosphere.

In 1983 Ruth and Walter had a wonderful holiday in Australia, in a flat in Sydney overlooking the harbour. They visited the Blue Mountains. Ruth learned about Aboriginal history and culture, and they looked up Walter’s factory in Newcastle: now under different ownership, but, amazingly the same gateman was still there – he exclaimed “Oh, Wally Block, I remember you!”

The joy of Australia was soon overshadowed, however, by the recurrence of an illness Ruth had first experienced when 21/22. After an agony of misdiagnosis, and a consultant who had no idea what was wrong but told Ruth she should accept that her active life was over, Courtauld’s Medical Officer, who Walter met by chance on a train, suggested, correctly, it was M.E.

From now on, life was to become what Ruth described, with stoical understatement, as ‘a difficult journey’. This isn’t the place to detail all Ruth’s manifold difficulties: suffice it to say that her incredible courage in the face of terrible pain, loss of mobility, and an uncomprehending, and at times it seems an uncaring medical establishment, was matched by Walter’s constant care. He contemplated giving up work to look after her, but she wouldn’t allow that.

Additionally tough were the four years, including two short remissions, of her daughter’s terminal cancer. Naomi was always positive, and determined to stay alive until after Tom had started school. Ruth was with her in Sheffield for many many weeks, supporting and caring for her until her death in 1996. Walter was a rock.

After retiring, Walter continued to do significant part-time work, first of all for Courtaulds itself, and then advising the then British Rail, the Civil Aviation Authority, sitting on the panel of Industrial Tribunals in Birmingham, and working for a Leamington company helping people made redundant to apply for new jobs.
Walter’s enduring love of the theatre meant that he joined a Plays and Performance class run initially by Warwick University. When government funding for this ceased, the class continued, with members leading in turns to study an agreed play being staged locally, by for example the RSC, the Birmingham theatres, Warwick Arts centre. Members formed long-lasting friendships.

Sue Goldsmith and Trudy Hillier are two of those great friends, and I believe there are others here too. I believe you have memories you would like to share and you will have the chance in the Open Floor session.

Walter and Ruth often took the grandchildren to the theatre, including pantomimes: grandson Tom and grand-nephew Josh themselves made their first appearances on stage in local pantomimes.

During her remission Ruth was able to study with Walter for their TESOL certificates (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages). Walter went on to teach individuals, while Ruth helped young Vietnamese refugees. In 1992 Walter went on to take an M.A. in Modern British Studies at Warwick University, following on Ruth’s enjoyment in studying for a Peace Studies M.A. at Bradford University.

Walter also took a great interest in Ruth’s community history work and in her not-for-profit Plowright Press. He was Company Secretary of Ruth I Johns Associated Ltd.
For some 20 years, Walter and Ruth were involved with the local Quaker community. Walter respected the work done by the Quakers during the Nazi period, but he never signed up as a member, respecting all faiths but signing up to none. They both took on considerable responsibilities, and had a special interest in the Warwick Quaker Centre Community Café. Several Quakers are with us this afternoon – thank you for your support.

Finally, Ruth’s dreadful illness meant that she was and is entirely housebound, unable to move much, in great frustration and constant pain. Walter was absolutely a rock, ministering to her, caring for her, and reading aloud to her, as Ruth says, “beautifully – the hidden teacher and actor were still there!”

And then he developed acute myeloid leukemia, which was very aggressive but mercifully pain free. For the three months before he died, Ru-tee sat with him each week in the wonderful Aylesford Unit of Warwick Hospital while he had the blood transfusions. He died at home, with Ruth, Martin B, and Ru-tee with him.
He lived to see all the grandchildren reach their 20s, with their lives blossoming in a variety of ways.

Many people have written letters of condolence. A Brazilian friend, Eneida Fonseca, says “I was lucky to have the opportunity to know that a person like him exists. I will never forget the very good memories I have of this extraordinary example of a human being.” Paul Ong, a British Singaporean Chinese friend of myself, Walter and Ruth, married to a wonderful Polish lady called Ewelina, states “he taught me to value human relationships above all else. It healed some very deep wounds. So I love Walter and I love Ruth. And because of that healing, I now love Ewelina.” Their baby boy, Lewis Andrew, has just been born.

I hope this little outline sketch has given some sense of what a very remarkable and wonderful man Walter was: a man of integrity, a man of huge talents and wide-ranging interests, of great intelligence and a warm and rich humanity, a man who made and valued so many deep friendships, who cared very much about people and about the state of the world, a man of such aliveness and commitment and dedication, with a strong sense of humour - a man who overcame such a brutal start to his own life with the antidote to all evil, love.