Obituary: Joe Latham

For the last 47 years Mr Latham was at the family business JM Latham Timber Merchants in Doddinghurst near Brentwood in Essex.

His funeral at Doddinghurst parish church on October 31 was well attended by Mr Latham’s former customers, including local builders and joiners, who paid tribute to his skills in timber and wood machining.

“This delightful timber merchant business ceased with Joe’s retirement and with its closure it seemed an era had finally passed – an era which had long disappeared elsewhere in the wider commercial world,” said one timber industry representative who knew him.

Mr Latham was apprenticed at Tom Greens in nearby Ingatestone as a joiner and then moved to the joinery shop of Young and Martin in Stratford – east London.

Both Mr Latham and his father worked for a brief spell at Phoenix Timber in Rainham before leaving to continue the family business in Doddinghurst.

It was here Mr Latham settled and became a much-loved character of the local trade. Not suffering fools and known to express his feelings in a forthright manner, Joe was nevertheless admired and respected in the locality.

His loyal band of customers and suppliers respected his knowledge and integrity and both were treated in equal measure to his sharp tongue should they act in a way not acceptable to him.

“He was a popular character amongst the people who knew him,” said a trader who knew him.

“Certainly this type of timber business will never be repeated and the world is left a poorer place without him and his kind.”