WARM tributes have been made to a much-loved former Rhyl taxi firm owner following his death.
George Mellor, who ran “George’s Taxis” from the late 1980s until 2004, died aged 81 at Bradshaw Manor care home in Rhyl on January 21 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
A husband to his late wife Joyce, George was a father to seven daughters, and had 21 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren.
Born to parents Edith and Felix in Crewe in November 1941 in a family of 10 children, George owned caravans on the Sunnyvale park in Kinmel Bay where he and his family used to spend holidays.
But he later uprooted them to North Wales in 1977, moving to Prestatyn, and later to Rhyl.
George worked as a bricklayer, and as a porter in the Royal Alexandra Hospital and later Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, before becoming a taxi driver.
He started “George’s Taxis” from his family home in Ernest Street, with wife Joyce and daughter Gillian as operators, a citizens band radio, and a couple of drivers.
After selling the business in 2004 to enjoy retirement, George then started his own car boot sales, which he was still running into his late 70s.
His family celebrated the life of a “genuine character” who was “one of a kind”.
Daughter Lucie said: “My dad was the strongest, determined, hardest-working person that I know.
“He lived through a bowel cancer operation, a heart attack, pneumonia, sepsis, and COVID-19; he was given the nickname ‘Iron Man’!
“Only a few years ago, he had me pushing his car on my own after it broke down in the middle of town!
“He brought us all up to learn the value of money. I went on a cruise with him in Tenerife, and we got lost, and I told him to get a taxi so we could get back to the ship, but he wouldn’t – we ended up walking about four or five miles in really hot heat.
“He burned all of his head, and couldn’t walk by the time we got back to the ship!
“He always had loads of time for us. He was just a genuine character.”
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George also signed up to join the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1959, in which he served for about four years, and was posted in Germany.
Another of George’s daughters, Gillian, remembered a man who “would do anything” for his family.
She said: “My dad was one of a kind. He worked hard just to provide for all of us seven girls. I started George’s Taxis with him in the late 80s, and was still there 16 years later when he sold it.
“He definitely was a family man, and would do anything for us girls and his grandchildren; we always came first.
“He is going to be missed by many, especially us girls.”
Daughter Carol added: “He never really retired, working on car boots, markets and house clearances. He was a true grafter and taught us all how to work for a living.
“He lived life well, enjoying food, cruises and horseracing until COPD got the better of him.
“He was a straight-talking, proud, dependable family man; a truly remarkable person.”
Bobby, a granddaughter of George’s, celebrated a man to whom she is “truly, truly grateful”.
Se recalled the many holidays her grandfather took her on, as well as the job and place to stay which he gave her earlier in life.
Bobby said: “No matter how busy he was, or what he was trying to talk about with other adults, he never refused a conversation with me - and if there's one thing I'm known for, it's never shutting up!
“He made me laugh and cry, taught me the value of money, how to grow my own vegetables, and to try and be as independent as possible.
“He taught me how to earn and show respect, and how to demand it when it is not freely given, and how to be strong, but always a person others can come to for help.
“There was never a single day in his whole life that people couldn't come to him for help. Above all, he was the most dependable man I have ever met.
“I am here today because of him; I wouldn't have made it through some parts of my life without him, and I'm truly, truly grateful for the life I have now.
“To him, it was nothing, but the influence he had on me growing up was indescribable. I just wanted to thank him for everything he did for me, just by being himself and by being my grandad.”
George died the day after the fifth anniversary of the passing of his late wife, Joyce.
His funeral service will be held at Denbighshire Memorial Park and Crematorium on Monday, February 13 at 12pm.
Donations in lieu of flowers will be gratefully received towards Ronald McDonald House at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool.
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