Frank Bather remembered at memorial service

Frank Bather passed away after a brief illness on February 26, 2021, just weeks short of his 65th birthday.

After a lifetime of hard work he was contemplating slowing down and spending more time with his wife Liz and family.

He was the third generation of Franks' to have managed Frank Bather and Son tyres Birkenhead since 1927.

Frank and wife Liz understood that it was a difficult time to be ill, during Covid-19 pandemic.

Back in February, the BBC were filming a documentary about the work of the North West ambulance team.

Old photograph of Bathers in the 70's

Frank and Liz agreed that the event of the ambulance team visiting Frank at home and taking him to hospital could be filmed, albeit they weren't aware of the seriousness of the situation at this point. The documentary will be broadcasted by the BBC at a future date.

Although there were strict Covid rules in place at the hospital, Liz was allowed to stay with Frank at his bedside when the seriousness of his condition was realised, though unfortunately his children were unable to visit.

A week before Frank passed away it was his desire to get back to his home but he wanted to be upstairs. A difficult task as health workers have rules about taking patients up stairs in a chair.

But Liz told the Globe that this was resolved by the "marvellous" staff at Arrowe Park, liaising with the ambulance service and the local fire brigade, who are allowed to take people up stairs.

The Bather family described it as a "remarkable effort" that Frank, Liz and the children were grateful for and for all the gravity of the situation made everyone smile, but importantly enabled all of the family to be together in his last days.

Frank’s funeral was held in March under strict Covid rules, with only 12 people allowed to attend.

But Liz and Frank’s children - Tom, Amy and Laurence - felt that as so many people had shown their support and affection for Frank, that it was only right to enable everyone to remember him and celebrate his life and that of the history of Frank Bather Tyres in Birkenhead after trading since 1927 in the area.

Frank's Grandparents with the original van when they lived in Neston

The memorial service was held on Friday, October 15 at St Andrews Church Bebington and was officiated by David Vestergaard, followed by a reception at the Bridge Inn.

The invitation was opened to everyone who knew Frank via the Globe and people arrived from all over the country, some of whom had moved away from the Wirral years ago, but always returned to Bather's when they needed new tyres.

An old bus with the Bather advert, restored by Wirral Bus Museum

Liz told the Globe: "The intention was to have the old 1960/70s blue bus outside the church which has been restored at the Wirral bus museum with the original Frank Bather and Son advert on the side, but sadly they couldn’t get the safety inspection completed in time despite valiant efforts from the museums volunteers."

Instead, Liz prepared several collages of photographs of Bathers through the decades. The photos stretched from the original cake shop purchased by Frank’s grandfather in the 1920s on the corner of Spring Street and New Chester Road, to the present day photographs of the building in the same location together with old photographs of the staff and family.

Liz said the passing of Frank has been a terrible shock but Frank and his family’s legacy lives on "not just in Bather’s tyres but in the lives of all of us who knew Frank".