Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the celebration of Jim’s life, so I thought that I might offer a few short words of past memories.

I suppose when I was growing up in England, we weren’t related, but always called ourselves cousins, Big Jim, Meg, myself and Little Jim - in a little way you could say he was like a brother to all of us.

At one stage he was like a surrogate father when he stood in and gave Anne away at our wedding on the Broads in 1988 Scouting was always a major part of Jim’s life and it was a family thing for a while with myself and brother also involved and my mother and father were an important part of the scouting movement for many years.  Jim always saw scouting as an adventure, for the young or old, whether it was doing Gang Shows, helping people or just travelling through the countryside of England.

There were many laughs and I would imagine that many of Jim’s friends could elaborate on some of the many fun times. As I left the ‘Mother Country’ for my own adventures in Australia at a relatively young age I missed much of Jim’s life – my brother would be able to fill in the many spaces.

Jim however, did get to visit Australia with my mother and his, for a bit of an extended adventure holiday and we enjoyed some good times and laughs for that short period. This trip also gave Jim an opportunity to catch up with his sister Meg who moved to Australia before me – I managed to see Meg at Christmas and unfortunately, like myself will not be able to travel over.

Whenever I managed to return to England for a holiday I always tried to catch up with Big Jim, my brother and Jan being only to pleased, to help with the driving.  The last time I got top see him was in the latter half of 2018 and we all went to one of his local hotels for lunch, it was good to see him in great spirits even though I knew that he had been poorly.

I am very pleased that I managed to see him before his passing and will always remember him with a great fondness and a smile on my face recalling some of the few experiences that I enjoyed with him.

Rest in peace my friend and I am sure that Eddie Shrimpton is waiting to enjoy new adventures with you.