This site is a tribute to Brian Carmichael, who was born in South Shields on August 31, 1939. 

Brian was a son, a husband, a father, an uncle, a grandfather, a partner and a friend. In each of these categories he was the best that anyone could ever ask for.

Brian was an enigma, full of contradictions: a simple working-class lad, yet a noble gentleman; an industrious hard worker, yet he enjoyed relaxing and living the lazy life; he was ridiculously funny, yet he was also serious and studious.

Brian was intelligent, brave, kind, dependable, generous and humble. He kept a typewritten copy of the following poem in his box of treasured keepsakes:

Indispensable Man

by Saxon White Kessinger

Sometime when you’re feeling important;

Sometime when your ego’s in bloom

Sometime when you take it for granted

You’re the best qualified in the room,

Sometime when you feel that your going

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow these simple instructions

And see how they humble your soul;

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put your hand in it up to the wrist,

Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining

Is a measure of how you’ll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore,

But stop and you’ll find that in no time

It looks quite the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example

Is do just the best that you can,

Be proud of yourself but remember

There's no indispensable man.

Brian, you may not be indispensable, but you are certainly irreplaceable, very much loved and dreadfully missed.