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John Trice

I met John Trice in 1962 when working at Redifon. He was a friend of Ron Smalley who I also met there. An amazing  character with many talents.  At our first meeting he said he would guess my signature. He had my name in block capitals on a paper in front of him, He looked at me for a couple of minutes then picked up a pen and signed my name. It was almost perfect, 
I wish I had kept it.

His normal handwriting is 'copper plate' and knows no other way to write, but my signature obviously isn't.

His hobby was surrealistic art. Unusually he drew with ball point pens. All these pictures were done in the 1960's

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I think it  is a parody on an important church leader

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He could also carve anything with just his penknife. This nut, bolt and washer were carved out of chalk whilst on holiday, sitting on a beach in Malta. They are a perfect fit and the hexagon heads are amazingly accurate, just being assessed by eye. The bolt is about 12 mm diameter.

He also makes 'penny whistles out of reeds or bamboo.  All cut by eye and when played seem pitch perfect.

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John Trice at Ifield Mill, Crawley in the 1990s making 'penny whistles' with Raija and the late Roger Bastable, Holy Trinity teacher

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