TOMORROW, Grimsby will say its final farewells to a proud Icelandic man renowned for his ability to fix everything from motorbikes to clarinets.
Known to all as Val – but born Gudmundur Valdimar Ebenezersson – he arrived in Grimsby on a trawler in 1932, aged just seven.
He was following in the footsteps of his father, August Ebenezersson, a trawler skipper, who had been advised to head to England to make his fortune by his brother, Arthur, who was working out of Hull at the time.
However, when the time came for the family to make the crossing, Val was ill and, fearing immigration may turn them away, August decided he would have to come separately – which he did, hitching a ride aboard another trawler a couple of months later.
Val's son Mark and daughter Yvonne said he would often recall those early days in Grimsby, when he was unable to speak English and was surrounded by a whole host of things he had never encountered in Iceland.
Mark said: "He had only been in England two or three days when he went into the town and the gates closed at Wellowgate level crossing.
"He had never seen a train before – except maybe in books – then suddenly here was this great hissing, steaming thing right in front of him."
He and his older brother Sverry were soon enrolled at St James' School, where they found their classmates found them just as strange as they were finding life in England.
Mark said one of his father's earliest memories of his life in the town had been when, seemingly, the whole school had turned out to stare at the brothers as if they had come from another planet.
While it did not take long for the family to settle in their adoptive new home, in 1939, just before the Second World War broke out, Val and his two younger brothers Rab and Auguist were sent home to Iceland, where the family believed they would be safer.
At the age of 16 he returned and, like many boys of his age from the area, was sent to Ruston Bucyrus, Lincoln, where he served a five-year engineering apprenticeship.
It was to be a good move for Val, who not only met his beloved wife June – who went on to run the Kashmir Boutique, Pasture Street – but learned skills which were to shape his future.
After being called up to the Army in 1946, he was posted to Hampshire, where recruits were put on a basic engineering course.
However, thanks to his background at Ruston's, he was quickly picked out and asked to take up a post as an instructor instead.
On his return to Grimsby after the war, Val – who was a keen motorcyclist – took up a post working as a mechanic for racing world champion Freddie Frith, who had opened a new motorcycle shop in Victoria Street. It was a job he would hold for 40 years.
His love of taking on engineering challenges thought to be insurmountable by others, not only made him many friends, but also spilled into his other hobbies, including his love of jazz music.
He and other fans would regularly meet up to listen to music over a glass of wine – one of his other great passions – and it wasn't long before he was trying his hand at fixing musical instruments.
After Val retired from the motorcycle business he took up instrument repair work for Grimsby's music shops and the Local Youth Orchestra.
Val was also a long standing member of the Humberston Men's Association where he had many friends.
Val's funeral will be held tomorrow, from 2.20pm at Grimsby Crematorium.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made in his memory to the Ark Animal Rescue Centre, Donna Nook.
