Jeffrey King

Wallsend, Northumberland, England

Jeffrey Albert King (15th July 1917 - 27th November 1984) was an English electrician, who co-owned his own company called J & S Electrician Power Supply, which was also co-owned by Samuel White. He was the son of Broadway actress Gladys Morris and older brother to Steven King, a columnist for the Newcastle Daily Express, which he wrote articles for.

## Early life

King was born at Princes Margaret Hospital in Northumberland, North East England, the first child of Albert King(1889-1963), a farm labourer, on Millers Farm and Gladys Morris(1896-1979), a Broadway actress, who is best remembered for her performance in The Lady In Red musical and The Woman In Black play. He had three younger siblings called Julia, Thomas and Steven. Growing up, he never knew his mother, as she left the family, when she moved to California, with King's future stepfather Edwin Stewartson, who King never met, he was raised to believe that his father's second wife, Joyce Harris was his mother, as did his three younger siblings.

He was educated at Florence Road Primary school, which he left at 14 and got an apprenticeship to train as an electrician, which was how he met Samuel White, who in 1938, he set up the company J & S Electrician Power Supply with.

## Career

In 1938, at the age of 21, King and his friend Samuel White set up the company J (standing for Jeffrey) & S (standing for Samuel) Electrician Power Supply, though initially their business was doomed, as there was another electrician company in the area, which had more customers, many of which believed that King and White were "too inexperienced to succeed", however when the other electrician company went into liquidation, King's company soon received many customers, making their company successful and making King quite rich. They co-ran the company until 1964, when White died of leukemia, after which King got his brother Steven, to write an article about White, to tell customers of the bad news. In 1982, King retired due to an illness and was uncertain of the future of his business, until his son Edward, asked if he could take over the company and King accepted.

## Marriage and children

In 1944, King met Kathleen Carter, along with Samuel White, who fancied her, King was doing electrical work in Carter's house, where she lived with her parents and asked her afterwards "if she would like to go on a date?", which she accepted his invitation. Their first date was spent at the Elephant House café, getting to know each other, whilst the second date was spent at a restaurant in Newcastle and the third was spent at a hotel, where they spent their first night together. They married in Newcastle, in 1946, though they were both uncertain of the future of their marriage, which is why in 1953, when their first child Edward was born, they gave him the double-barrelled surname Carter-King, the same as their second child, Beverley, who was born the following year. Their marriage lasted for 38 years and whilst a Ruby wedding anniversary would normally be 40 years of marriage, King and his wife celebrated it two years earlier, as they knew that King would not be around to celebrate it in 1986.

## Death

In 1982, King was diagnosed with throat cancer, the year before he was diagnosed with bone cancer, he began to lose a lot of weight, which was a worry for his family, especially his wife, who he lived with. he felt tired most of the time, lost a lot of energy and had severe bone pain, which he lost the use of his legs. In 1984, he tried walking downstairs, where his wife was standing in the kitchen, though he found it too difficult to stand, without his legs shaking and though he was holding onto the banister, he tripped and fell, leading to his wife to come rushing to see what the noise was, King had banned his head on the corner of the wooden sideboard, which the telephone was resting on and bled out, his wife rung for an ambulance, that took a while to get there, though King was still alive at the time of being rushed to the hospital, but died moments before being placed in a room, after which the doctors told his wife that he had passed away.

King was buried at Wallsend Cemetery, as was his wife, fourteen years later.