Eccles Rugby Club is sad to announce that former player Major J Rodney Cadman passed away at a Hospice in Bolton on Sunday after suffering heart and circulatory problems. He was 87.
Our oldest current ex playing Member, Bill Lowe who is 89, fondly remembers Rodney’s arrival at Gorton St, in the 1950’s.
Past President Andy Brunt, who knew Rodney mainly through his long tenure at the helm of James Cadman and Sons Ltd of Swinton, recalls “he was a very well respected figure in the Construction industry throughout the North West. I only discovered Rodney’s connection with Eccles a few years ago when he turned up as a guest at a pre match lunch. It was a very pleasant surprise and it was great to reminisce with such a pleasant man with such fond memories of both Eccles RFC and his working life”.
Rodney was born in 1933 in Eccles and was educated at Moorside County Infants School, Manchester Grammar School and Manchester College of Technology (U.M.I.S.T). He gained a Higher National Certificate in Building and in 1955 was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant iserving in Far East with the Royal Engineers, retiring in 1969 at the rank of Major; he became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building in 1973. Amongst many public roles he was sworn in as Justice of the Peace in March 1983 and became a Deputy-Lieutenant of Greater Manchester July 1998.
Further details of Rodney's life can be seen at http://manchesterlieutenancy.org/Cadman_Rodney
His funeral will be at St Marks Church in Worsley on Friday 20th December at 0930.
