It is with great sadness that I write about the death of a long-time friend of mine at the age of 80 – Terry Padgett.
Terry must surely have been one of the youngest ever toy representatives to visit Hong Kong in 1960 at just 15 years of age. He had recently joined Woolman Bros. – a long established toy importer based in Leeds, when he was asked to visit Hong Kong with his boss, Eric Woolman.
Terry loved the toy trade along with travelling to the Far East and in the early eighties with his brother David formed Padgett Brothers, creating the A-Z series of pocket money toys.
He also met his loving wife Linda in Hong Kong & they continued travelling for business until only a few years ago – they had also just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary earlier in the year. He was a brilliant sourcer of value-for-money toys, building up a loyal customer base in the volume side of the toy industry. Such was his growing importance within the industry that Terry was invited to join the Board of the Harrogate Toy Fair in the 90d and remained an active Board member until very recently.
An avid Leeds United supporter, we often had discussions on the state of the game and his support of Leeds United never wavered. Along with his wife, Linda, they were season ticket holders, never missing a home game.
Terry was also a member of the Fence Club, supporting many of their events. We were also regularly teamed together at the Fence Club golf day. None of us ever scored many points, but we certainly enjoyed the day with Terry providing many of the raffle prizes that helped hugely with the Fence Club’s fundraising efforts at the evening dinner.
He will be greatly missed by his wife Linda, his daughters Alison & Deborah, his brother David, his grandchildren & all the extended Padgett family – a true gentleman has gone, but never forgotten!
