Thomas King

Thomas King (29th April 1919 - 1st August 2003) was an English greengrocer, who owned his greengrocer's in North Shields, Northumberland, called Tom's Greengrocers, which first opened in 1962 and closed in 2001. He was the son of Broadway actress Gladys Morris, younger brother of electrician Jeffrey King and older brother of Newcastle Daily Express columnist Steven King.

## Early life

King was born at Princes Margaret Hospital in Northumberland, North East England, the third 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 two older siblings called Jeffrey and Julia and one younger brother called 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 knew, he was raised to believe that his father's second wife, Joyce Harris was his mother, as did his siblings.

He was educated at Florence Road Primary school, which he left at 14, two years before he began working as a fishmonger at Newcastle market, a job that he turned into a career.

## Career

King began his career, when he first worked as a fishmonger on Newcastle market, he enjoyed fishing on weekends and would sell the fishes that he caught, though he also paid fisherman to catch the fish and sell them to him, which was how he met his future wife Katherine Stewart, who's brother Simon Stewart, King paid to catch fish. King worked as a fishmonger for twenty-two years before getting a job in a greengrocers, which he then worked in until 1962, when he opened his own greengrocers called Tom's Greengrocers, in North Shields.

## Marriage and children

King was only married once and only ever had one child, he married Katherine Stewart in 1949, at the age of thirty, there was a ten year age difference between them, though they made their marriage successful. In 1950, King and his wife moved to number 10 Tyneside Lane, in North Shields, a few months before their child Colin was born. Despite the fact that they lived a happy life, things soon changed in 1954, when their son fell ill, it began with their son Colin coughing frequently, which one day, whilst King was at work, his wife rung a doctor to ask him to come to their house and check on their son, but the doctor said "that it was nothing to worry about", but after a while, Colin began to get a severe fever and began to cough more all before he was found passed out in his bedroom, he was found by his mother and rushed to the hospital, where he was declared to have died from pneumonia. Due to their son's death, there was an awkward silence in their house, that lasted for almost two years, though they eventually accepted their son's death. King and his wife's marriage was then successful until 1970, when King's wife died of breast cancer. After his wife's death, King became bitter and mean spirited, he began to fall out with his brothers and lost contact with them.

## Death

Up until 2001, King kept himself busy by working at his greengrocers, but overtime he began to lose more and more business, leading to him to close his shop down, he then spent all of 2002, in his house, with his neighbours Mr and Mrs. Atkinson coming around to see him and sometimes would drink alcohol with him, they were the only two people that King trusted, as he had lost contact with his family. In 2003, King collapsed in his kitchen, but recovered a few hours later, with blood on the corner of his forehead, he walked into the living room and on the moment that he sat on the settee, he died of natural causes, being found two hours later by his neighbour Mr. Atkinson, who looked through his living room window, after not receiving an answer, when knocking on the front door.

King left all his money and belongings to his neighbours, who in return, paid for his funeral and burial at North Shields Cemetery, in the same grave that his wife and child are also buried in.