Andrew Stewart: December 13th 1926 - August 24th 2008
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He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on December 13 1926 to Catherine (nee Young) and John Stewart - a veteran of the Battle of the Somme in WWI. Northern Ireland was, at that time, at the beginning of a very long and tentative struggle towards the peace and resolution that the nation enjoys today.
Following the Easter Rising of 1916 the island of Ireland was divided into the British North of Ulster and the Republic of Ireland in the south - it was into this Northern Ireland that Andrew Stewart was born and raised.
His family had settled in Northern Ireland, then simply ‘Ireland’, in the mid 1800’s; his ancestors came from Scotland and they brought with them the traditions which saw Andrew raised in the Presbyterian Church and later on to become a valued and highly respected member and master in both the Orange and Masonic Lodge.
Andrew was raised to be a proud Loyalist; British to the core. But he never wore these attributes on his sleeve, for Andrew was a quiet achiever, never given to blatantly outward expressions of faith or political opinion.
He left school at the age of 14 and at 16 qualified from his apprenticeship as an electrician with another teenage boy who was to become a lifelong friend - John McClelland. It was around this time, whilst working for the engineering firm of Scott’s in Belfast at the age of just 16, that Andrew’s eye was caught by a fellow co-worker - a young girl of 15 with bright, friendly eyes and hair of soft golden brown curls. The two teenagers quickly became friends; before long Andrew had fallen in love with the girl who would become his one lifelong companion - Pearl Whyte Montgomery.
Andrew and Pearl became sweethearts whilst in their teens and from that time on neither ever looked at, nor considered, anyone else. Their friendship took it’s path and developed into a deep and undividing love when they eventually married in Bloomfield Presbyterian Church in 1951. The couple honeymooned in Dublin and then returned to East Belfast where they began their long and happy married life.
Andrew and Pearl were just the same as other young married couples; they wanted a home of their own but near to their loved families. They both worked hard over the following years to save the money to buy the home of their dreams. During this time, on June 7th 1960, Andrew and Pearl became the proud parents of a baby boy who was to be the greatest blessing of their lives - John Arnold Stewart. The baby was named ‘John’ after Andrew’s dearly beloved father; the name ’Arnold’ was given to the baby in honour of the world famous golfer of the time, Arnold Palmer. But from the very start their son was always known as ‘Arnold’.
The baby’s birth had been difficult and Pearl had needed a Caesarian Section at the Jubilee Hospital in Belfast. After the birth she spent three weeks in hospital before returning to their rented home at Enid Drive very near to Bloomfield Church. Pearl needed to take things very easily for several weeks while she recovered from the birth and during this time Andrew, a member of the local Volunteer Police, was in charge of directing the local July 12th Parade.
Andrew was concerned that Pearl would miss this very important part of the annual Orange Order calendar and so deliberately redirected the traditional route of the parade so that the participants - the marchers, bandsmen and onlookers - would walk right past his home where Pearl was recuperating. As a result of this, Pearl was able to view the parade from her bed passing right by her window.
The fact that this ‘new route’ also passed right by the local Roman Catholic Church and school didn’t seem to bother anyone - Andrew just wanted his wife to enjoy the parade. To this day the July 12th Orange Parade in that area still follows this exact same route that Andrew so discreetly ‘changed’ back in July 1960 - and very few know that it takes this path today solely because of one man’s devotion to the happiness of his wife and son. And it is this seemingly incongruous act that somehow defined Andrew in the hearts and minds of all who ever came to know him - both before and after.
In 1964 Andrew and Pearl finally achieved their goal - after years of hard work together they finally bought the house of their dreams in Orangefield Road and were to make this modest, yet much loved house, their beloved home for the rest of their married life.
Andrew, over the following years, worked every hour that God sent in order to give his son, Arnold, the very best education that he and Pearl vowed he would have. And his efforts were rewarded. Arnold graduated in 1982 with an Honours Degree in Computer Science from Queens University with a very proud Andrew and Pearl looking on. From this time Andrew continued to work as an independant electrician in his own business with his friend and colleague, Bob Agnew, as his partner. With Arnold now employed and following his own successful career, the family began to travel the world on frequent holidays which would take Andrew to places that he never knew existed and experience life on a whole new level. And he loved it. It was a whole new stage in his life.
It was during one of these holidays that Arnold met ‘me’ and through this meeting Andrew was to embark on the next, and possibly most important, stage in his life - that of a Granda.
Arnold and I presented Andrew and Pearl with their first grandchild - James Arnold Christopher - on April 29th 2002. It was a role that was totally unexpected for Andrew and Pearl and yet, very quickly, they became adoring and devoted grandparents to their very first grandchild. Andrew took on the role of Granda to James with the same loving committment that he felt towards Arnold when he became a Daddy back in June 1960. James and Andrew formed a strong bond right from the start and this was shared twofold when his second grandchild, John, was born in August 2004.
His grandchildren became the light of his life in his retirement days; Andrew had grown older yes, a little slower maybe, but a lot richer in terms of the love and joy that surrounded him in the form of two beautiful little boys who adored him, the wife who remained devoted to him and the son who cherished his company and happiness in his new extended family.
When Arnold and I moved over to France to start our own business Andrew and Pearl made visits here to see their grandsons and then lived for the times in between when Arnold took the boys over to visit them in Belfast. And Arnold did this often. The visits to France eventually became more difficult for Andrew due to his age and health but there were the very happy times when Arnold, James and John spent weeks at a time at the family home in Orangefield Road visiting Andrew and Pearl and especially on Andrews birthdays when all five of them would go out for dinner at the Park Avenue Hotel - a special treat from Arnold to his father which Andrew always appreciated deeply.
Andrew loved to spend his time quietly in his beloved home with Pearl - his ‘girlfriend’ of almost 68 years. In all that time the two had never spent time apart, always doing everything together; Andrew loved to potter in his garden and go for drives in the car with Pearl to favourite places like Whiterock and Killinchy where he and Pearl had attended so many Saturday night dances when they were young. Andrew, above all else, loved three things equally: his wife, his son and his grandchildren. His home came a close fourth…
It was in this much loved home that, on Sunday August 24th 2008, Andrew’s life came to it’s end. It ended quietly, peacefully and quickly. In the same room he had shared with his Pearl for nearly 50 years - in the same room where his adored grandsons had sat on his bed and shared his toast and tea for breakfast in the mornings during their visits. The heart of his home and also his life.
His service the following Saturday, August 30th, saw nearly 100 people attend to honour a man who was loved and respected by all who had ever known him. At the very church where he and Pearl had pledged their life to each other in March 1951 Andrew was bid farewell in the best possible way. His old friend, John McLelland, told of the Andrew he had known since their teenage years; Arnold, the son he worshipped, told of the Andrew we all knew - the honest and caring man; the loving and devoted husband; the adoring Daddy and the cherished Granda.
And he will be remembered always, with love.
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