An appreciation by Terry Fry.
Eric Horriben, the well-known author and local historian, died on 18th July at the Q.M.C. He was 86 and had been blind and in poor health for years. He was the author of Hucknall “Of Lowly Birth and Iron Fortune”, first published in 1974 and re-printed in 1999, which is the best history of the town.
Eric was born in Hucknall in 1917, the son and grandson of miners. He went to school there before moving on to Henry Mellish School in Bulwell. For over 40 years he worked for Hucknall U.D.C., becoming its Chief Rating Officer. His career was interrupted by six years’ service in the Devonshire Regiment, and he saw fierce fighting in Normandy, Arnhem and Germany as a tank driver and gunner. At Falaise, in 1944, his gun and one other were the only survivors out of 11 in his Battery.
He was a man of many talents and interests. He played rugby and cricket, the latter for Bourne Methodists C.C. of Hucknall as a wicket-keeper, once memorably to a young Harold Larwood. From 1972 he was a fully credited Methodist local preacher and ran the youth club at Mapperley Methodist Church. Cycling, rambling - at the time of his death he was honorary president of Nottingham C.H.A. Rambling Club - amateur dramatics and local history were enjoyed to the full. After he retired he studied at the University of Nottingham for the Local History Certificate, then became a tutor in local history for the W.E.A. One of his W.E.A. classes did the research for the Mapperley Hospital Centenary booklet in 1980. He was also a member of the Byron Society and a leader of tours of Nottingham's caves.
But, above all, Eric was interested in helping others. He was largely responsible for Nottingham Holidays for Fatherless Children, even taking some on holiday with his own family. He made an ideal Father Christmas at the National Children’s Home, Springfields, and at Haydn Road Primary School. It was there I first met him when his daughters were pupils and I was a young teacher. But I didn’t get to know him until the late 1980s when I was researching the history of Sherwood. Eric had lived on Winchester Street with his family for many years and was the ideal person to help me with many queries, which he did in typically generous fashion.
A measure of the man was the full congregation at the Service of Thanksgiving for his life at Mapperley Methodist Church on 29th July. Our condolences go to his wife Kath, daughters Janet, Alison and Ruth and grandchildren Clement, Edward, Elizabeth and Tim.
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