Gerard Byrne obituary

My father, Gerard Byrne, who has died aged 83, had a wide range of jobs - from joiner to recycling officer - and an even wider range of hobbies and skills, ranging from woodworking to dressmaking and golf to snooker.

Born in Liverpool to John, a labourer, and Elizabeth (nee Lally), Gerry was brought up in the Scotland Road area of the city with two sisters, Elizabeth and Frances, and a brother, John. After spending some of the second world war years in care, he received a scholarship to St Francis Xavier's college, but remembered the teachers resenting the scholarship children, so that one-by-one they all dropped out until Gerry, the last in his year, also left early.