Graham Roger Wadeson was born in Hatch End, near Harrow, on the 21st Feb 1944 to Arthur and Kathleen Wadeson. Within a few weeks his parents decided he looked more like a Roger, so they abandoned the name Graham and he was always known as Roger.

At 4 years old he met his dear friend Robin (who we will hear from later).

He attended Wellington School in Hatch End, and then the Northwood School of Coaching, the latter of which was run by Lawrence Beasley, a Titanic survivor. At the age of 13 he moved to Goring Hall School in Worthing as a boarder. His parents moved to Worthing a year later, at which point he became a day pupil.

Whilst at Goring Hall, Roger and his friends formed a band called the Strangers, some of whose music you heard as you came in today. He did have a few lessons in reading music, but gave up and began playing by ear. Roger was usually the lead guitarist, but would also swap and play rhythm guitar. The band came to a natural end when they all left school.

After he left school, Roger worked at Heathershaw’s music shop in Worthing for a time. Rather than taking over the shop as Mr Heathershaw had hoped, he took a course in electronics and went on to work for ICL as a computer engineer in the early 60’s, based in Guildford and Brighton.

Before joining ICL, he went round the country on a road trip with school friend and fellow band member Richard Hendra, a trip that included temporarily losing their car in Blackpool and taking so long to find it that they got locked out of their boarding house, resulting in them having to sleep in the car.

Roger joined various bands after school. The most notable was Omega Plus who supported, amongst others, The Who, The Kinks and the Small Faces. There are many stories from this era. The Who allowed them to play through their equipment, which is more than the Small Faces did as they were allegedly worried about being upstaged! Ray Davies of the Kinks borrowed Roger’s Gibson guitar, and worryingly got mobbed by girls rushing the stage. Roger didn’t really mind what happened to Ray Davies, but he was most concerned that his guitar was saved. He stopped playing when the band turned professional, only taking it up again in the early 90s. He sold his original Gibson guitar to his brother, Pete, who had been influenced by Roger to play himself.

In his early days as a computer engineer, fixing physical computer problems when a computer was the size of a room, Roger had been working inside one. It caught the top of his finger, which came off. The company put him into a taxi, together with the top of his finger, and sent him to Brighton Hospital. However, when he arrived there, he left the tip in the taxi, only realising when he got to reception. They, amazingly, managed to trace the taxi, and found it in on the back seat. It was duly returned to its rightful owner, who then played guitar the following weekend with an enormous bandaged finger - which for a lead guitarist, was pretty good going.

Roger met Fenella whilst he was in the band. They married in 1969 and had 2 children, Tash and Toby. The family lived in Worthing.

Also in 1969, Roger wanted to move into Computer programming and so joined Excess Insurance as a trainee programmer, eventually becoming a systems programmer. He did become a manager, but it was not something he particularly liked, and he wanted to get back to what he really enjoyed. He had already developed, along with a colleague, a computer system for estate agents, and in 1983 he went back to being a systems engineer full time. He spent time working on an early version of a word processor and then worked for a company developing print servers, mainly for office networks.

Roger and Fenella split up the early 1980s. He had always stayed in touch with his ex-colleagues at Excess Insurance and had known Yvonne whilst there. They were both in a pub quiz team called Harry the Horse and in 1985 they became a couple. They fell in love, moved in together and married in 2004. He retired in 2010 and she joined him in retirement in 2013.

Roger loved watching Formula One and snooker amongst other sports. He played snooker and billiards in the local league, winning some trophies, mainly with his team. He enjoyed music and went to several live concerts, as well as regular theatre trips with friends. He was also a complete gadget man and had gadgets for pretty much everything! He liked to be precise, even to the point of making sure sandwich fillings fitted perfectly, much to the amusement of his children!

He enjoyed travelling the world with Yvonne, including Barbados, Thailand, America and Egypt. After Tash and Toby moved to New Zealand in the early 2000s, he visited them as often as he was able to, especially after his grandchildren, Marley and Monty, were born.

Unfortunately, Roger had a very rare form of motor-neurone disease which impacted his life noticeably from 2005. It was a degenerative disease and of course robbed him of many of the things he had hoped to do. However, he did keep playing the guitar!

Roger was a kind, clever, thoughtful and funny man. He was a true gentleman. He had a great sense of humour, a winning smile and could be quite mischievous. He was greatly loved by his family and friends.

Roger died on the 12th February, aged 72, after a short, sudden illness. He will be greatly missed, but his memory will live on in our hearts.