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 It is with great sadness that I have to tell you of the death of our longtime Treasurer, Mike Cawdell. Naturally the thoughts of our membership, and particularly the Committee, are with Chris and all their family at this time.
Mike was one of the founding members of our Society, he has served on the Committee, in one capacity or another, for almost all of those twenty odd years. As well as doing sterling work as the Treasurer for the last ten years Mike was heavily involved in the production of our early publications. When modern technology began to rear it's head in data storage, publishing and research he was one of the very few of us who, at the time, was not intimidated by it all. Because Mike got into the new technology very early on, it fell to him to do masses of extremely tedious things, like putting every name in every one of our publications onto a data base!. Such was Mike's wonderful capacity to get involved and interested in anything and everything, we are not the only organisation in Royston who will miss him terribly.
He has raised enormous amounts for charity with his work with the Royston Lions and has worked very hard for the Scout movement for many years as well. I do remember him having a dilemma, when invited to the Royston Mayor's annual reception for local charities, clubs etc, to decide whether to accept his invitation as a member of the Lions or the Scouts.
With regard to his family research it was never enough for him to find his ancestors, nor even to "put the flesh on their bones". Mike had to "up the ante" enormously by tracing as many living family members as he could and then hosting massive Cawdell Family weekends in their ancestral home town, Baldock. Cawdells used to fly in from all over the globe for these "do's" with Mike organising venues, catering and accommodation for upwards of a hundred people!.
Also legendary were Mike's quizzes, no Christmas Social was complete without one. It has to be said that there were occasions when, having scratched our heads for hours over the answers, we were not quite as imbued with the Christmas spirit towards him as we might have been!.
When Mike was diagnosed with cancer he, figuratively speaking, rolled up his sleeves and began the fight with his customary organisation and good humour. Because of his fighting spirit and determination, he stayed with us for a good deal longer than expected. A couple of years ago several of us were invited to his sixtieth birthday party, a super evening made all the more special because we hadn't dared to hope that he would see it. A packed Burns Road Community Centre saw not only so many of his friends, colleagues and family gathered, but also the floor was swarming with little Cawdells crawling and toddling their way to the future.
Be assured, Mike, that your memory will remain evergreen, not only in the minds and lives of Chris, your children and grandchildren, but with us whenever we look at our early books and leaflets and we will cherish it.
Avril Emery
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