Edward "Ted" Jones Whitehead

I guess you could say I am a familiar face in Banglampoo, a popular riverside area of Bangkok. The waves of foreigners who visit this chaotic metropolis, are a regular part of my day. But a few years ago, I noticed someone, older than the usual tourist crowd, head down, determined stride, daily exploring what I had come to think of as ‘my patch’.

I’d heard people greet this man, built like a terrier and spring in his step, as ‘Taff’, informing me the neighbourhood newcomer was a Welshman. One evening, outside my local bar, he passed where I sat with friends, cooling the days heat with a beer. I invited the stranger to join us; he immediately returned the kindness, buying beers all around. Introductions were made, Ted entered our company, and a legend was born.

From that moment, he entertained with stories that spanned the geography and history of the twentieth century, and we were only too happy to listen to a man who had lived a life from the pages of books. Ted charmed everybody with his stories; ninety-one years old, and the youngest heart at the table. Anyone who met him fell for the yarns he spun, rum in hand and smile as broad as the Welsh valleys.

Ted frequently mentioned an autobiography, written some years back, stored in a case in a friend’s loft. By a stroke of luck, Steve, one of our crowd, was visiting home in the next few weeks. We arranged to collect the manuscripts from Ted’s friends in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. Sure enough, Margaret and Harold had kept Ted’s typed memoirs all these years. Steve returned with a suitcase of papers, photos and trinkets, the collected items of a lifetime of travel. I made the offer to help get this unique story published; Ted handed me a stack of typed papers with a gleam in his eye.

From the moment I started, it was apparent that Ted was a skillful writer, this wasn’t just a series of diary entries. I copied Ted’s original manuscript onto a word document, and promised my best efforts to publish. It would take a while, but this was a man who had become a great friend, and his was a story worth telling. Every day, I typed until my eyes gave out, I sailed the waves to far off places, travelled a world that has changed so much since, and Ted’s simple elegant writing did it in style.

Down Below is the first of Ted's memoirs, soon to come is the follow up which is to be titled Sea Legs.

Ted, Edward Jones Whitehead sadly passed away peacefully in Bangkok, on 2nd July 2021, two weeks before his 98th birthday.