November 14, 2022
by Matt Boyle
Early Life
On 14th June 1957 William and Geraldine Boyle (who was better known as Bill and Jane) were blessed with their third son David Phillip Boyle. Older brothers Steve and Mark were waiting to greet my Dad into the family home in Kirby but it wouldn't be long until 3 became 7. Kim, Keith, Paul and Jayne would soon be born into the ever expanding Boyle family. In 1970 my Grandads job had took the family to Ellesmere Port. The family home in Errigton Avenue on the Wezzie would become the family hub for generations to come for the next half century or so. My Dad went to school at what we now know as the Catholic High School but left at 16 to take up a Joinery apprentiship attending College at Carlett Park. This would be the catalyst to a hectic end to the 70's. On June 25th 1977 having only just turned 20 he would marry his childhood sweetheart Pamela Whitehead. The newly married couple soon had their first home, a flat in Raby Court on the newly built Stanney Grange estate.
Kids
It didnt take long until I arrived on the scene, in July 1978 at the age of 21 my Dad became a parent for the first time. We would soon move to our family home in Fotheringay Court and as the decade drew to a close in December 1979 a second son was born. It had been agreed by both my Mum and Dad that they would name my new baby brother Michael but having witnessed a birth for the first time Dad decided that there would be a change of plan and David Michael Boyle was welcomed into the world. 6 years would pass before the youngest son Matthew was born, it was December 1985 and Everton were right in the middle of theit most succesful period and in honour of this Matt was given a middle name after the great Howard Kendal and thus Matthew Howard Boyle was born.
Rapid Rise at Work
Now I mentioned earlier my Dad had trained as a joiner which was always a source of amusement to anyone who visited our house. There were always cupboard doors needing rehanging or draw fronts that had come off not what you would expect when visiting a professional joiners house. Despite this in the 80s my Dads career was flourishing he was rapidly rising through the ranks at the construction company Bovis. Foreman, General Foreman, Site Manager, Senior Site Manager. Perhaps someone decided they wanted him as far away from the tools as possible or more likely his greatest strength had been identified and was being harnessed. That of course was his people skills.
I can't imagine a role that he would have been better suited to, working with numerous different tradesman enouraging them, motivating them, having them all pull together towards a single objective. The ideal job for a genuine leader of men. I worked on a huge construction project myself a few years back and a number of the senior guys had worked alongside my Dad over the years and always sang his praises. The first building I remember him working on was the Safeway (now the Morrisons) in Chester alas in the eighties there wasnt much construction going on in the north so my Dad started working down south in the week and would come home at the weekend. When he was working on the Financial Times building in London he would always pay a visit to the famous toy shop Hamleys on a Friday. He would come home armed with a cast iron Thomas the Tank Engine character to add to Matt's collection.
Dodgy Driver
Thomas toys weren't the only thing he brought back from London, he also brought back some questionable driving techniques. My Dad loved his Cars and loved to drive, in his later years his Mercedes became his pride and joy and in his retirement he enjoyed his part time job as a delivary driver. There seems to be a theme developing here just as his Joinery skills were questionable thanks to his time in London I think its fair to say his driving was a bit on the dodgy side. Don't get me wrong when we were kids we would love trips in the car we would go Bowling on a Friday and the best bit coming home and starting the stop watch as we hit the M53 and seeing if we could beat our record time back to junction 10. It was only after I learned to drive myself that I began to realise how questionable my Dads driving was and this was highlighted one day when driving up the M6 in heavy traffic over 100 miles from home that I looked up into my rear view mirror and a car was dodging between the middle lane, inside lane and outside lane. Undertaking, overtaking, tailgating, squeezing into any gap available. Just as I was thinking look at this nutter as the car was undertaking me and I glance across and there was my Dad looking right back. A quick smile and wave and off he went into the inside lane into a gap that had developed. No doubt he was in a rush to get back and sneak a pint in the Seahorse before going home.
Stay at Home Dad
In 1991 following the breakdown of his first marriage, in a somewhat unusual move for the time he sacrificed his career putting it on hold to become a stay at home Dad. Needless to say we ate a lot of chips and beans as kids but our Dad embedded in us so many life skills. On my Dads watch I didn't miss a single day of High School. Not just because education is important but because it was good practice for in the workplace where being reliable is a skill that is easy to achieve and critical to success. By the time most kids reach their teenage years they are embarrased by their parents this was never the case with our Dad. He was always a cool Dad this was epitimised in the 90s when trainers were the ultimate status symbol for kids our age. My Dad was the first person we knew to own a pair of Nike Air Max 180s. All our mates were in awe and I was so jealous that my feet weren't big enough to borrow them from him. He really was more like a cool big brother than a boring embarassing Dad. When I was big enough I often used to nick his best shirts to goto the Pub. This ended in disaster at my friend Karens 18th I was having a drunken jog to Oscars, tripped and shredded a hole in his favorite shirt needless to say it didnt go down well.
When I was at University occasionally my friends would disappear for a few hours because their parents had come to visit and they had gone out for a meal together or been taken shopping or something. However thats not what happened when my Dad came to visit. FA Cup final day 1997 he came for a visit and we went out on an all day session in Leicester with 20 or so of my mates. We could have been sat right back in the Wing Half or the Gunners as ever he was the centre of everything, getting the beers in and holding court with a hoard of 19 year olds who he had never met before. Everyone had a great day we got Kebabs after last orders walked home and he got his head down on my floor. It's fair to say he held legendary status with the Leicester University Alumni of 1999.
The next chapter
In 1996 my Dad met his rock Janet who would provide the foundation for him to build the next chapter in his life. They were married in August 2000 and he quickly became a father figure to his new daughters Amy, Sarah and Laura and I think it is fair to say that he loved them as if they were his own. By now my Dad was also getting his career back on track and started working on the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 spending his weekdays in Colnbrook and his weekends back in Ellesmere Port. His next major work project was the construction of the Echo Arena in Liverpool now called the M and S Bank arena. In May 2008 he was due to meet the Queen as part of the opening ceremony for the arena but had to pass up the opportunity to attend a family funeral.
Grandkids
My Dad loved kids and was fortunate enough to be blessed with 12 Grandchildren to dote upon:
Jess, Maisie and Pippa
Carrie and Keifer
Lea Lea, Jack, Reggie, Riley and Eliza
William and Gabby
On 14th June 1957 William and Geraldine Boyle (who was better known as Bill and Jane) were blessed with their third son David Phillip Boyle. Older brothers Steve and Mark were waiting to greet my Dad into the family home in Kirby but it wouldn't be long until 3 became 7. Kim, Keith, Paul and Jayne would soon be born into the ever expanding Boyle family. In 1970 my Grandads job had took the family to Ellesmere Port. The family home in Errigton Avenue on the Wezzie would become the family hub for generations to come for the next half century or so. My Dad went to school at what we now know as the Catholic High School but left at 16 to take up a Joinery apprentiship attending College at Carlett Park. This would be the catalyst to a hectic end to the 70's. On June 25th 1977 having only just turned 20 he would marry his childhood sweetheart Pamela Whitehead. The newly married couple soon had their first home, a flat in Raby Court on the newly built Stanney Grange estate.
Kids
It didnt take long until I arrived on the scene, in July 1978 at the age of 21 my Dad became a parent for the first time. We would soon move to our family home in Fotheringay Court and as the decade drew to a close in December 1979 a second son was born. It had been agreed by both my Mum and Dad that they would name my new baby brother Michael but having witnessed a birth for the first time Dad decided that there would be a change of plan and David Michael Boyle was welcomed into the world. 6 years would pass before the youngest son Matthew was born, it was December 1985 and Everton were right in the middle of theit most succesful period and in honour of this Matt was given a middle name after the great Howard Kendal and thus Matthew Howard Boyle was born.
Rapid Rise at Work
Now I mentioned earlier my Dad had trained as a joiner which was always a source of amusement to anyone who visited our house. There were always cupboard doors needing rehanging or draw fronts that had come off not what you would expect when visiting a professional joiners house. Despite this in the 80s my Dads career was flourishing he was rapidly rising through the ranks at the construction company Bovis. Foreman, General Foreman, Site Manager, Senior Site Manager. Perhaps someone decided they wanted him as far away from the tools as possible or more likely his greatest strength had been identified and was being harnessed. That of course was his people skills.
I can't imagine a role that he would have been better suited to, working with numerous different tradesman enouraging them, motivating them, having them all pull together towards a single objective. The ideal job for a genuine leader of men. I worked on a huge construction project myself a few years back and a number of the senior guys had worked alongside my Dad over the years and always sang his praises. The first building I remember him working on was the Safeway (now the Morrisons) in Chester alas in the eighties there wasnt much construction going on in the north so my Dad started working down south in the week and would come home at the weekend. When he was working on the Financial Times building in London he would always pay a visit to the famous toy shop Hamleys on a Friday. He would come home armed with a cast iron Thomas the Tank Engine character to add to Matt's collection.
Dodgy Driver
Thomas toys weren't the only thing he brought back from London, he also brought back some questionable driving techniques. My Dad loved his Cars and loved to drive, in his later years his Mercedes became his pride and joy and in his retirement he enjoyed his part time job as a delivary driver. There seems to be a theme developing here just as his Joinery skills were questionable thanks to his time in London I think its fair to say his driving was a bit on the dodgy side. Don't get me wrong when we were kids we would love trips in the car we would go Bowling on a Friday and the best bit coming home and starting the stop watch as we hit the M53 and seeing if we could beat our record time back to junction 10. It was only after I learned to drive myself that I began to realise how questionable my Dads driving was and this was highlighted one day when driving up the M6 in heavy traffic over 100 miles from home that I looked up into my rear view mirror and a car was dodging between the middle lane, inside lane and outside lane. Undertaking, overtaking, tailgating, squeezing into any gap available. Just as I was thinking look at this nutter as the car was undertaking me and I glance across and there was my Dad looking right back. A quick smile and wave and off he went into the inside lane into a gap that had developed. No doubt he was in a rush to get back and sneak a pint in the Seahorse before going home.
Stay at Home Dad
In 1991 following the breakdown of his first marriage, in a somewhat unusual move for the time he sacrificed his career putting it on hold to become a stay at home Dad. Needless to say we ate a lot of chips and beans as kids but our Dad embedded in us so many life skills. On my Dads watch I didn't miss a single day of High School. Not just because education is important but because it was good practice for in the workplace where being reliable is a skill that is easy to achieve and critical to success. By the time most kids reach their teenage years they are embarrased by their parents this was never the case with our Dad. He was always a cool Dad this was epitimised in the 90s when trainers were the ultimate status symbol for kids our age. My Dad was the first person we knew to own a pair of Nike Air Max 180s. All our mates were in awe and I was so jealous that my feet weren't big enough to borrow them from him. He really was more like a cool big brother than a boring embarassing Dad. When I was big enough I often used to nick his best shirts to goto the Pub. This ended in disaster at my friend Karens 18th I was having a drunken jog to Oscars, tripped and shredded a hole in his favorite shirt needless to say it didnt go down well.
When I was at University occasionally my friends would disappear for a few hours because their parents had come to visit and they had gone out for a meal together or been taken shopping or something. However thats not what happened when my Dad came to visit. FA Cup final day 1997 he came for a visit and we went out on an all day session in Leicester with 20 or so of my mates. We could have been sat right back in the Wing Half or the Gunners as ever he was the centre of everything, getting the beers in and holding court with a hoard of 19 year olds who he had never met before. Everyone had a great day we got Kebabs after last orders walked home and he got his head down on my floor. It's fair to say he held legendary status with the Leicester University Alumni of 1999.
The next chapter
In 1996 my Dad met his rock Janet who would provide the foundation for him to build the next chapter in his life. They were married in August 2000 and he quickly became a father figure to his new daughters Amy, Sarah and Laura and I think it is fair to say that he loved them as if they were his own. By now my Dad was also getting his career back on track and started working on the construction of Heathrow Terminal 5 spending his weekdays in Colnbrook and his weekends back in Ellesmere Port. His next major work project was the construction of the Echo Arena in Liverpool now called the M and S Bank arena. In May 2008 he was due to meet the Queen as part of the opening ceremony for the arena but had to pass up the opportunity to attend a family funeral.
Grandkids
My Dad loved kids and was fortunate enough to be blessed with 12 Grandchildren to dote upon:
Jess, Maisie and Pippa
Carrie and Keifer
Lea Lea, Jack, Reggie, Riley and Eliza
William and Gabby