| Pub-goers raise thousands for Irishman
Bob’s funeral  By
Niamh Hennessy
HE died penniless but Irishman Cider Bob was going nowhere without a final
one for the road from his friends in his home town of Tadley in Hampshire.
Robert Cosgrove, or Cider Bob as he was known, moved from Belfast to England
when he was a teenager.
He was settled in Tadley for 40 years and at his death was living alone
after his long-term partner Hazel Swanzey passed away in 2004.
Being virtually penniless he faced a pauper’s funeral after he lost
his battle with heart disease.
On hearing this a group of his friends at the Fox and Hounds pub in Mulfords
Hill raised £2,500 to pay for a proper send-off for Mr Cosgrove, whose
funeral was held at Reading Crematorium in Caversham.
Over 120 people attended to say farewell to the 78 year old former building
worker who was not thought to have any living relatives.
Known also as Belfast Bob and to others as Cider Bob, Mr Cosgrove was almost
part of the furniture at the Fox and Hounds pub.
He died at his home in Reynards Close on January 2 after losing his battle
with heart disease.
The mourners listened to Simple Minds’ Belfast Child as they said
their last goodbyes to Bob.
Mr Cosgrove had grown up around the Shankill Road area in Belfast but left
when he was in his teens.
He served as a driver in the Korean War in the 1950s and lived in Manchester
before he moved to Tadley.
Over the years he made many friends at the Fox and Hounds.
He would often amuse the regulars with stories of sharing a pint or two
with legendary footballer and fellow North of Ireland native George Best.
He also claimed to have served in Korea with the actor Frank Finlay.
His friend Archie Morrison told the large congregation at the funeral: “He
would have been pleased to see so many familiar faces here. He loved Tadley
and all the friends he made there. I half expect to hear him asking us to
join him down at the Fox and Hounds.”
After the ceremony 44-year-old Mr Morrison who had flown down from Scotland
to attend his pal’s funeral and wake said: “He was a larger-than-life
character.
“He had so many stories to tell. I don’t think there was a town
or a city in the country where he hadn’t been.”
Local residents Tricia Ryan of Little Aldershot Lane and Tracey Coggle from
Stephens Road, Tadley, both remember him well.
Mrs Ryan, 44, said: “Everybody loved him and he is going to be sadly
missed.
“I am really chuffed that so many people turned up.
“Everybody has been very generous.”
She added: “Nearly half the money will be donated to the Salvation
Army which was the only charity Bob really cared about. They helped him
a lot when times were hard.”
The wake was held at the Fox and Hounds where food and bottles of brandy
his favourite tipple were laid out.
Mrs Ryan said: “As soon as he came through the door he would say:
‘Mine’s a brandy’.
“On Christmas Day I used to put a bottle of brandy and a card on his
doorstep. It was the only gift he got.”
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