RIP ERIC DAWKINS

Sad to read of the death of Eric Dawkins, aged 94, a man who made an immense contribution to public life and who gave us so much “added value” with his penchant for entertaining with the unconventional.

Eric was town clerk with Falmouth, Penryn and Truro at various times between 1970 and 2003, with other posts in his long career including  Carrick District Council amenities officer.

 

He was also memorably the man at the helm of Falmouth’s St Nazaire commemorations for over 30 years, as recognised by Falmouth Town Council in 2017 - https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/15259093.eric-dawkins-recognised-again-for-his-dedication-to-st-nazaire-commemorations/

 

Eric has made so many appearances on my blog and in my various columns and books down the years that I really wouldn’t know where to begin right now. 

 

So here’s a couple of my favourites at random. He truly knew how to bring smiles to our faces.

 

TOWN CLERK’S ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ WAY OF MAKING MINUTES READABLE

 

Deservedly or otherwise, council minutes would probably be high up on most people’s lists of reading matter suitable for combatting insomnia.

 

There’s an exception to every rule, of course, and one man who managed to achieve the exact opposite was Falmouth and Penryn town clerk Eric Dawkins, who could even boast that his minutes once made a reporter jump out of his bed!

 

In an interview with him in 1986, he told me it had all been to do with his favourite trick of slipping in outrageously long and little-known words. 

 

I say “outrageously” because these words – or “Dawkinspeak”, as I christened them – were frequently beyond the comprehension of those for whom they were principally written – his councillors – let alone the public at large. 

 

As for that reporter who left his bed, Eric recalled: “He said he usually read council minutes in bed because they sent him to sleep, but when he read mine for the first time he leapt out of bed again to find his dictionary!”

 

Hardly surprising, really, if you had just read this: “A disputatious discussion on the sesquipedalian content of the draft notes for guidance ensued prior to the reconcilement on the utilisation of the budgetary allocation of . . . “

 

“Disputatious,” “reconcilement” and “utilisation” are straightforward enough in meaning, although magnificently supporting the “rule” that you should never use a short word where you can find a long one.

 

But you might well be stumped, as I was, by “sesquipedalian.” So Eric advised: “Use of words over a foot long . . . applying to long words.”  Well, yes, quite so!

 

Then, in the same minutes, came this mouthful: “During the ensuing discussion, it was the opinion that a delegation having a verisimilitude of hermeneutics should meet the county council highways committee chairman to clarify the situation.”

 

This time at least my dictionary came to my aid, as it had not done with “sesqui-etc”.  Verisimilitude: “The appearance or semblance of truth or reality.” Hermeneutics: “The science of interpretation.”

 

“I have achieved what I wanted,” Eric declared.  “People read my minutes.  Some of the council look at them specifically for these words!” 

 

It’s just a pity they so often couldn’t understand them, as per his last set of council minutes before the 1987 local elections, when his final phrases included “a disquisition of dissyllabic monomania” and “a display of noology to the perplexity of members.”

 

THE ‘SHEIKH’ WHO FOOLED THE MAYOR

 

The time is almost upon us for a fresh round of elaborate April Fools Day pranks, but they will have to go some to match one played on the then Mayor of Penryn, John Ashwin, in 1981.

 

In what can only be regarded as one of the great April Fools Day stunts of all time, John was a top-table guest at a Penryn Rotary Club lunch meeting in Falmouth’s Green Lawns Hotel. 

 

He found himself sitting beside another “guest,” in Arab headdress. He was introduced as Sheikh Muhammed Ali Aba Al Khaial, Minister for Finance and Economy in Saudi Arabia.

 

Club president Walter Trevena said a prolonged Muslim grace and, after a split vote the previous week, members had no alcohol with their meal. Their “Arab” guest chopped his lamb into tiny pieces . . . and ate a specially prepared dish of rice with his fingers.  Likewise the strawberry mousse.

 

An interpreter, it was explained, had been delayed on the way over from Newquay Airport, and the “Sheikh” had been brought in by Falmouth Town Clerk Eric Dawkins.

 

The former evidently had no idea what to do when everyone else stood up at the end of the meal for the loyal toast.  So much so that John Ashwin placed a glass in his hand and physically helped him out of his chair.

 

Afterwards, Eric drove the “Sheikh” away – to a nearby location where he took off the Arab headdress loaned by Falmouth’s Workshop Theatre and washed off his make-up.

 

David Woods, Helston Rotary Club member and actor, shook hands with Eric and reflected:  “It was the most uncanny feeling, knowing so many people and yet not being able to speak to any of them. I was received with great courtesy by everyone.”

 

Eric Dawkins later had a quiet word with John Ashwin . . .