Colin Boutty

Joe Eastwood
Lancashire Fusiliers

I am honoured and privileged to be asked to speak a few words on behalf of the Lancashire Fusiliers at the Funeral for my dear Brother in Law Colin David Boutty.

I First met Colin when he was just 17.
I had fallen for his older sister Vivienne and she told me about this rather different brother she had, who was amazingly bright, intelligent and headstrong.
He was all that and more.
From the minute we met, we liked each other and a brotherhood of over 50 years was formed.
Colin was then a bit of a handful to say the least and between his Mum and the local magistrate it was decided that he would be better employed in the Army
I was serving in the Lancashire Fusiliers and by sheer good fortune he was posted to us as our Vehicle mechanic.
He came to South America with me and later to Hong Kong, and the times I bailed him out of trouble are too numerous to relate.
His problem was that he found it difficult to take orders from people he did not respect, and if he had no respect for you, he told you, and that included some fairly senior Army Officers.
One of his numerous escapades came when he was interviewed by an ex RSM,
who was by then the MTO. He realised by Colin's reputation that Colin needed careful handling and because he had done a "Man Management Course" he decided to make the interview as informal as possible. "Sit down Boutty, now then, we can be frank with each other and completely off the record we can see what the problem is. I Don't think you like me very much do you? " Colin then, having been assured that he could be frank and speak his mind, told the MTO in a few short Anglo Saxon words his opinion of him. Colin then was appalled to find himself once more in the guardroom. Not a year went by when he did not repeat this story to me, he was so livid that the man broke his word.
So a lengthy Army career then was not on the cards for Colin!

A man of infinite charm and warmth, deeply intelligent and gifted with a musical talent I was to envy all my life .

Many will not know that he once earned quite a good living, he and Margaret duetting country music in pubs and clubs.

He was a prize winning photographer, and again, once earned his living from this skill.
One of his many gifts which he freely shared was in the early grasp of what was then new technology. I had the idea of a Lancashire Fusilier web site, and he immediately threw himself into enabling me to build the wonderful site we enjoy today. Along the way during the past 15 or so years, he not only was our webmaster, but he visited many homes of LF veterans to help with setting up or solving an IT problem.

He leaves us with some wonderful gifted and charming children and grand children and a million happy memories to treasure.

I shall miss him.