Page 46 - MarketTimesJune2016
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   OBITUARY — Malcolm Pattison
Bidding farewell to Malcolm Pattison
 MALCOLM PATTISON, a much loved market character with an entrepreneurial flair, who sold fruit and veg in Beverley and Hull for 60 years, has died, aged 80.
Malcolm began his working life in Hull, aged 12, wheeling handcarts laden with fruit and veg to and from his grandfather’s shop.
His was a large family and the Pattison brothers ran shops and stood markets across a swathe of East Yorkshire.
Malcolm began trading on Beverley market, aged 20, with his brother, Keith, 17, selling just Spanish onions on an 8 ft stall, having brought them to market by horse and cart.
They soon had a flourishing fruit and veg business, but it wasn’t enough for Malcolm’s entrepreneurial nature.
His enterprises ranged from boiling beetroot to sell, to setting up one of the first frozen foods business in the country.
His son, Lee, who now runs the fruit
and veg business, recalls Malcolm’s success at wholesaling Umbriga trees. “Dad made up the name,” Lee said. “Umbriga trees were branches he painted with glue and covered with polystyrene balls when he succeeded
in wholesaling as decorative pieces.” His daughter Suzanne, who sells flowers on Beverley Market, recalls
his highly lucrative holly business. “One winter there was a total famine of holly with berries,” she said. Malcolm hit on an idea to profit from the dearth of holly berries and persuaded a Yorkshire paint company to give him a large sample of scarlet
paint.
He painted polystyrene balls and
stuck them on to holly branches. “Even before he got to the wholesalers he had people trying to buy them off him,” Lee said. “At that time holly with berries sold for £2 a stone but he was getting £5 a stone,” he said.
Another enterprise was the first frozen food business in the UK with chest freezers imported from Denmark long before the likes of Iceland.
Malcolm was also the first market trader to turn his fruit and veg business into self-service.
Malcolm was awarded the NMTF’s John Carter/Harry Cross Memorial Cup in 2013
Suzanne said: “With dad, it was rags to riches, then riches to rags. But he was the most positive, optimistic person and always had a smile on his face. That’s how everyone remembers him,” she added.
Malcolm, who was Beverley NMTF branch Chairman for a number of years, was awarded the John Carter/Harry Cross Memorial Cup in 2013 for his outstanding service on behalf of fellow traders.
His successor as Chairman, John Dyson — NMTF President-Elect and following the AGM in April National President — said: “As much as anything, Malcolm was a great mate. We always enjoyed our times together at our AGMs.”
Malcolm leaves a wife, Wendy, as well as his two children.
 Pictured at a stall set up on Beverley Market in memory of Malcolm Pattison are, left to right: NMTF President-Elect John Dyson (now National President), Malcolm’s son and daughter Lee and Suzanne, and market supervisor Richard Lascelles.
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