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Hundreds say goodbye to city’s Chicken George

From the Worcester News, first published Tuesday 26th Sep 2006.

HUNDREDS of mourners packed Worcester's Baptist Church to pay their last respects to one of the city's most colourful characters.

Eighty-five-year-old George Webb - better known as Chicken George - was often seen dancing along to the music of street buskers in his heyday in the 1970s and 80s and was renowned for his lively character.

Yesterday, more than 200 people attended the Sansome Walk church to remember the man who thoroughly enjoyed music and life.

A procession fronted by standard bearers from the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and Royal British Legion - in recognition of his fighting with the regiment at Dunkirk in 1940 - led his Union Jack-draped coffin into the church for the service, held jointly by church minister the Rev Peter Hayes and St Andrew's Methodist Church minister Anne Smith.

Mr Hayes said very much of the fiercely-patriotic man's life was shrouded in mystery but that wherever there was music he would appear.

He told of how Worcester-born Mr Webb had two sisters and one brother and that one of his only living relatives was his nephew Ron Davis, who was unable to attend the service because he is ill with motor neurone disease. Fond of his drink, Mr Webb would also be seen wandering the streets sometimes shouting expletives. It is believed he was dubbed Chicken George because of his strange, jerky dancing.

Mr Hayes added: "George has gone and the streets of Worcester are not as colourful but perhaps the streets of another city are better - perhaps God has found a place for George to dance on the streets of gold."

Former minister Roger Hart's wife Pam remembered Mr Webb's complex character and his fondness for drink, which he claimed the "Lord" steered him away from.

Mayor Councillor Ian Imray recalled first meeting Mr Webb after joining the police in Worcester in the 80s.

He said: "If a busker turned up, George would hear him from 200 yards before he even opened the case of his instrument and he used to conduct everything from a nursery rhyme to a symphony.

"It didn't matter whether you were the London Symphony Orchestra or a seven-year-old scratching out a tune for the first time - he'd come and listen. He was one of the most respectful men I've ever met. I believe there were moments when he wasn't, but then aren't we all?"

The congregation sang along to upbeat hymns chosen to reflect Mr Webb's lively nature before the service concluded with the sounding of the Last Post and Reveille and the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers.

Worcester calendar and card-printing company Window on Worcester also donated postcards of a painting of the colourful character, which were handed out after the service before interment at Astwood Cemetery.

Fourteen-year-old saxophonist and busker Sam Pagett from Stourport-on-Severn - whose music Mr Webb often danced along to - played some of Mr Webb's favourite songs before and after the ceremony, including Gershwin's Summertime and Glenn Miller's big-band classic Tuxedo Junction.

Mr Webb, who had been a doorman at Worcester's Gaumont Theatre, died at St Cloud's Nursing Home in Callow End earlier this month.

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