Michael ‘Micky’ Hargraves with his grandchildren Lewis and Megan

FOR almost three decades, before most in the borough had even put the kettle on, a familiar figure was already out on the road, then at the printers, loading up his van and getting the Tribune into the hands of readers.

Week after week, in every kind of weather, he kept the paper moving and was one of those people we simply could not do without.

So it was with great sadness that staff and readers learned of the passing of Michael “Micky” Hargraves last week, aged 61.

Despite being in ill health for the past year, Micky never missed a shift, working just two days before he died.

Don Ryan, head of distribution, said: “He was a cornerstone of our distribution system. He delivered in the snow, in the rain, he never missed a day.”

Colleague Andrew St John, who worked with Micky for 20 years, added: “Mick was the most reliable driver, he was there week in week out. I’m now doing some of his rounds and I’m meeting people he knew – the community are really upset, several people have said so, he’ll be much missed.”

Micky had grown up in Fairfield in Arlington Road, Camden Town. His mother died when he was very young, leaving his father, Terry Hargraves, to raise him and his brother Bobby.

A typical “Camden lad”, Micky enjoyed a childhood spent go-karting in Regent’s Park with his cousins, Saturday trips to the pictures and setting off fireworks on Fire Engine Hill – St Pancras Way – on cold Guy Fawkes nights.

Micky with his daughter Cindy

Never workshy, he left Acland Burghley School after two years and transferred to Harmood School to train as a mechanic. He then worked as a minicab driver, set up a taxi repairs business in Belgrove House in King’s Cross and took on removal and clearance jobs before starting a 30-year association with the Tribune as a senior driver.

Cindy Sheppard, Micky’s daughter, said: “He was a happy-go-lucky person, very proud of his family, and would help anybody out that needed help – he did that until the end. He was a good dad. As a child we would go to B&Q car park for a sausage roll and then take off for a roast dinner and a McDonald’s on the way home. There were trips to Legoland, Chessington and Hastings, which we loved, particularly the old town.”

She added: “It was handy he was a minicab driver because sometimes, being a rebellious teenager, I would ring him up at two in the morning pestering him to come and get me and he always did, and stop on the way home to get fish and chips.”

Micky’s father Terry had long known former Tribune editor Eric Gordon, and Terry himself was a community advocate who attended Town Hall meetings. Micky, shyer by nature, found that delivering the Tribune was his way of serving the community. Starting in distribution in 1995, helping first with paper rounds, he later became a driver, arriving at the printers at 3am collecting the Tribune copies every Thursday and delivering them to dispensers, care homes and door to door, topping up the boxes.

After his rounds, you could reliably catch him in his favourite Archway cafe, tucking into a full English with a Diet Coke or tea – never coffee – and always tinned tomatoes instead of beans.
Every birthday the family celebrated at Jongleurs in Camden Lock.

“He liked a drink on his birthday,” said Ms Sheppard, adding: “Other than that the man was teetotal, but once a year he’d let his hair down which was always entertaining for everyone else.”

His funeral will be held at the Islington Crematorium on December 11 at 10.15am. The family have said all are welcome.