‘What’s in a nickname?’ Ted Percy (FS 51-56) writes:

“I should like to add a rider to the obituary of John Graham (‘Stig’) Jones, whom I knew well and who had a much admired racing bike with ‘Hobbs of Barbican’ on its scarlet crossbar (the things we remember!).

Stig’s nickname was not due to his ‘slim’ features – it was due to his densely curled black hair. In this particular he resembled a SF predecessor, one David(?) Rose, who was also known as Stig or Stiggy for the reason that he had ocular aSTIGmatism. I distinctly remember being in the same platoon of the CCF when, standing on the tarmac above ‘Blanco Alley’, someone (I think it was David ‘Zeke’ Collins), looking out of the open window said, ‘Who’s that Stiggy Rose guy?’, and the name then stuck. I liked Stig, he was an unpretentious, ‘get on with it’ lad, and I am glad his life turned out well.”

 

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St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

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