MEMORIAL AND CELEBRATION OF LIFE - HARDING LAITY
Channel: Cornishpastyman
Date: 2023-10-01

At a memorial and celebration produced by his children Jim, Jo and Tammy, friends and family remember a great St Ives character. His obituary in the local paper is published  below. Approximate points in the timeline :

START - 0.45 Downlong - the last farewell (9.15 a.m.)
0.45 -2.10 Gathering at The Guildhall (12.30 p.m.)
2.10 - 9.20 Eulogy (Jim)
9.20 - 14.50 Stories (Jo)
14.50 - 20.50 Poems and reflections (Tammy)
20.50 - 25.30 'That was Harding' (Tammy)
26.00 -28.00 'I'd pick more daisies’' (N. Stair, read by Tammy)
28.00 - 29.10 Acknowledgements (Jo) and ‘Little Lize I Love You’ (Tammy)
29.10 - END Pasties and chat

St IVES TIMES & ECHO 8 SEPTEMBER 2023

Many will have been saddened to learn of the death of DANIEL HARDING LAITY, who passed away on 26 August 2023. Not only his family, friends, readers of The St Ives Times & Echo to which he contributed, but also the many visitors he encountered and chatted with as they passed by his Downlong home in Norway Square. Harding (89) had struggled with ill health for some time.

 A St Ives man born and bred, from a respected local business family, his parents Jim and Nora ran local shops in which Harding began his working life. He served in the Royal Navy for his National Service, returning to work in the family business before becoming manager of the Penzance branch of a local estate agent. As a young man, Harding was a considerable civic figure. He served for 9 years on St Ives Borough Council, became an Alderman and was the last Mayor of the Borough before it was ‘relegated’ to a Civic Parish in Penwith District Council (PDC) during the local government reorganisation of 1974.

St Ives Borough Council had full responsibility for the running and financing of the Borough including council property, the roads, public toilets, council housing and town planning. Almost all of this responsibility was lost to the new (now defunct) PDC. The weight of responsibility on the shoulders of the town’s councillors was greater prior to 1974. Before standing in the by-election of 1964 Harding spent  3 years attending council meetings as a member of the public, ‘learning the ropes’. When he first stood for the Borough Council, he declared that progress was coming to St Ives ‘whether we like it or not’. In his election address he said: “Let us take advantage and progress in a St Ives manner, remembering that we hold this town in trust not only for our children, but for our children’s children and make our plans on a long term basis.”

He advocated striving to keep a balance between the commercial needs of residents and seasonal tourism as well as opening committee meetings to the public. As a councillor he was outspoken on issues he felt went against the interests of the ratepayers, especially in planning matters. He was an independent and followed the St Ives council’s established policy of putting the needs of the town before party politics.

Although Harding was never Mayor of St Ives in a year when the town held the John Knill Celebrations, he was a regular fixture at the unusual custom. As Master of Ceremonies, he performed his role with dignity and humour, keeping an eye on the Widows – whom he said were ‘always full of fun and very frisky’ – and encouraged the Vicar and Customs Officer to join in the dancing around the monument. He was MC at The Steeple on 9 consecutive occasions (1971 - 2011) before the role passed to Charles Guppy in 2016.

Today it is hard to believe that St Ives was virtually devoid of estate agents in the 1950s. Most properties were sold at auction by James Lanham and Sons who began listing properties in the 1960s when conventional estate agents like Pooley & Rogers began to appear in the town. However, during the 1970s new estate agents began to appear in St Ives, which was enjoying a property boom.

Estate agents began to blossom and by his Mayoral year (1973/74)  there  were at least 6 in the town, soon to reach 12 or more, including his own: Harding Laity & Co. Ltd. He liked to specialise in selling traditional St Ives properties and continued for the rest of his working life as an estate agent, selling the business on his retirement, after which he continued to enjoy his life Down’long and about the harbour. A great conversationalist, he had a wealth of stories about old St Ives and the characters he recalled from his youth, such as that other great teller of yarns, ‘Man Friday’. Latterly, he had become a regular contributor of short, informative and popular reminiscences from his St Ives life in this newspaper.  Sending his respects and condolences, fellow T&E contributor and art correspondent, Philippe Deligant commented: “Harding’s brief yet pointed and witty weekly pieces tucked away in the pages felt like the herbs and spices which give a cooked dish its flavour.” Harding left a small legacy of his pieces which, with his family’s permission, are yet to be published.

His wife Dee died in 2016. They  had 3 children, Jim, Jo and Tammy.