Death Of Well Known Turnham Green Cricket Club Coach

Gerry Chalmers coached the 'colts' team for many years

Well-known local resident Gerry Chalmers, who coached many young teams on behalf of Turnham Green Cricket Club, has died recently after an illness.

His funeral will take place at Mortlake Crematorium (Kew Meadow Path, Townmead Road, Richmond, TW9 4EN) on Thursday 06 February 2014 at 12 noon.

Gerard Joseph Chalmers (Gerry) was born in 1932 in Germiston, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa.

As a young man he worked in a music shop and studied draughtmanship, subsequently taking jobs with large building firms, including managing contracts for shopping malls as they became the trend in South Africa. He was also a professional musician, and was backing drummer to performers such as Anne Shelton, Petula Clark, Alma Cogan, Diana Dors and Tommy Trinder.

Gerry married four times, firstly to Jill Carelse, a Durban beauty queen with whom he had a daughter, Laura, secondly to Liz, thirdly to Saskia de Vries, a Dutch model, and fourthly to Anthonia (Toni) Hewitt, nee Hayes, with whom he had two sons, Nicholas and Christopher. The pair came to England in August 1977.

After Gerry and Anthonia settled in Chiswick, he continued his musical career outside his day job, and gave over Sunday mornings and many of his spare evenings to coaching cricket and taking his Under 10, Under 11 and Under 13 colts teams to matches on behalf of Turnham Green Cricket Club, with many a success.

A certificated coach, he undertook the Cricket Course for Coaches organised by Middlesex Cricket Union in 1992. A fellow attendee was the actor, Peter O’Toole, also a keen cricketer and the father of a young son. They found great rapport and chatted over lunchtime sandwiches.

One of those Colts remembers him thus: “his simple words 'bowl it straight' are perhaps quite apt not just for cricket but for life.”

Gerry was diagnosed as having multiple myeloma in 2005. He is survived by his wife, his three children, three grandchildren and a great grandchild, as well as many nieces, nephews and their offspring, mainly in South Africa, but also in Australia and the UK.

The family have indicated that they prefer only family flowers. If, however, anyone would like to make a donation in Gerry’s memory, please consider either Meadow House Hospice where he died http://www.meadowhousehospice.org.uk/donation.php?content_id=7 or Leuka (Registered Charity No: 286231), the blood cancer charity responsible for the Catherine Lewis Centre at Hammersmith Hospital where Gerry was for years an outpatient and an inpatient six times in the last 15 months. http://www.leuka.org.uk/support-us/donate/in-memory/

For details of the Celebration of Gerry’s Life to be held immediately after the cremation, please email: anthonia.chalmers@lineone.net”

January 31, 2014