A SINGING tailor who ran a Reigate business for 60 years has died.
Sidney Solomons was a well-known, cheerful character in the town, running Reigate Tailors – which for 50 years traded in High Street – with his younger brother Alfred and wife Brenda. He also organised music and comedy shows, raising thousands of pounds for charity.
He died on April 11 aged 88 after a 25-year battle with cancer.
Speaking on behalf of the family, his youngest brother Stanley, 80, said: "Sidney really was a one-off. He was a very popular figure and very well-known in the town, and always smiling.
"The two most important things in his life were singing and family. He would sing everywhere he went, you could hear him coming before you saw him.
"His ambition was to be a professional singer, but when that didn't work out he enhanced the lives of many people with his singing and comedy charity shows.
"For the last 25 years of his life he courageously battled prostate cancer and, despite his illness, continued to perform, raising many thousands of pounds for local and national charities."
Sidney, a father of four who lived in Doran Drive, Redhill, was heavily involved in the community and a member of numerous community organisations including Reigate Cricket Club, Reigate Round Table, 41 Club, Boxhill Masonic Lodge, Betchworth Golf Club and the local branch of Mencap. A keen cricketer, he also used to play for a Reigate traders team every Wednesday afternoon when the shops closed early.
Sidney Solomons grew up in the East End of London, moving to Reigate with his parents at the outbreak of the Second World War. He worked in Walkers grocery shop in High Street until 1942, when he joined the RAF and was posted to West Africa as a flight mechanic.
After the war he used his "demob" money to buy a second-hand sewing machine and went into business with Alfred.
The enterprising duo set up a canopy made of blankets on an area outside their Reigate flat and Sidney, the business brains of the operation, canvassed for clothing alterations and repairs which were carried out by his brother.
Later they opened a shop in a former dairy in Lesbourne Road, before opening Reigate Tailors at the end of High Street in 1959.
A few years on, the business moved to number 38 High Street in the centre of town, where Mrs Solomons also worked for 42 years. In 1968, the business branched out into manufacturing leather and suede, which was sold in stores including Harrods, John Lewis and Selfridges, as well as in Reigate.
The shop closed in 2008, a year after Sidney retired at the age of 82. He is survived by his wife Brenda, daughters Davina, Tamara, Ruth and Deborah, four grandchildren and his brother Stanley.
More than 200 people attended his funeral at Cheshunt Cemetery in Waltham Cross on April 14.
