Stanley was my second cousin, but we didn’t meet till the middle of our lives in 1996, when my parents organised a reunion of Saltiel cousins. There, he must have grown weary of hearing his older cousins tell him how much he resembles his father, Len a casualty of the Italian campaign and unknown to his son. But Stan may not have found it as tiresome as all that, as Len is universally re-membered as an exceptionally good looking and likeable young man.
It was impossible not to warm to Stan’s own charm, energy, and sense of humour: For example, he told me of making use of his cockney accent to tease his bank manager by claiming that the opening deposit for a new business came from a bank hold-up. (I’m pretty sure he was kidding.)
In 2003, the family organised a Reunion in Montpelier, where Stan played a leading part in the late night carryings-on of the unattached members of the party – what I called “the babes and the hunks”. For Stan at least, the carryings-on had a lasting result: he met Patricia and after a year or two of long-distance courtship the two settled down in Mexico City, from which Stan kept up diligently and affectionately with his UK family. All of us miss him greatly.
Miles Saltiel
7th September 2024