Tony Hird 1917 – 2023
Tony Hird
14.12.1917 – 08.06.2023
Tony Hird live in and around Evington for all of his long life. He was the oldest child of Harold and Gwendoline Hird and they lived together on Keddlestone Road. His grandfather was also called Harold and worked at Steels and Busks, an engineering factory on Temple Road.
Tony went to the City Boys Grammar School on Humberstone Gate. During the war the building was deemed to be unsafe because of the bombs, so they shared Wyggeston Boys School, alternating boys lessons every other week to be either in the mornings or afternoons.
Tony enjoyed sport and adventure and was in the 9th Leicester Scouts with his friend Geffrey Simson and the three Attenborough boys, Richard, David and Jonathan. They went to Yorkshire camping and did the Three Peaks Challenge. Tony helped his Uncle Herbert on Saturdays in his estate agency business and often went on holiday with this Uncle and his Aunt. Uncle Herbert’s partner had a daughter called Sheila, who Tony married years later.
At the age of 19, Tony was called into the army and was with the royal artillery, guarding the convoys that came into Pembroke Docks in Wales. Whilst in the army he played the piano in a 4-piece band and also played twice a week in the sergeant’s mess. This meant he could never go home! After two years in the army, Tony went on a road trip with his friend, David Herbert, whom he sat next to in alphabetical order at school. They drove to France and Italy. Tony had never been abroad before. This started a life-long interest in travel.
Although Tony initially worked in property, he decided on a career change and studied part time as a quantity surveyor on a 4 year part-time course in Leicester on Building and Quantities, completing this course successfully in 1951. 1951 was also the year he married Sheila, who he had met again on a bus. Tony had a long career as a surveyor, working with both the City and County Councils. He supervised the task of ‘rebuilding Britain’ after the 2nd World War, when Leicester built nearly 1,000 houses each year in the public sector. Tony also supervised the planning and construction of swimming pools in both the City and the County.
Tony was a family man, providing stable homes for his wife and two children, Barbara and Andrew. He built his own house on Roundhill Road, then built a house on Hawthorn Drive and a bungalow in Evington Lane, opposite Gisborne Court. For the last 50 years of his life he lived in a Jelson house in Fairfield Avenue, off Biggin Hill Road. His children remember him as an outdoor man, taking them on camping trips as far away as Costa Brava in Spain. They had short camping breaks at East Runton in Norfolk and remember sailing at Poole in Dorset. They also remember the many cycling and swimming outings and the allotments on Ethel Road where Tony grew Brussel sprouts, leeks and potatoes.
“This was a very fulfilling life” said Barbara, his daughter. “He will be greatly missed”.
