R.I.P. Window Cleaner Ernest Albert Day

Ernie, started cleaning windows in 1935, aged 21, when he would earn £1 for every 120 windows he washed.

Ex-window cleaner Ernie dies aged 97: A window cleaner from Newmarket who worked in the town’s High Street for 58 years has died. Ernest Albert Day died at his home in Cedar Lodge, Culford, on Wednesday, February 1, at the age of 97. Mr Day, known as Ernie, started cleaning windows in 1935, aged 21, when he would earn £1 for every 120 windows he washed. He worked up until his retirement at the age of 79.

His daughter, Susan Cox, of Bolton Close, Burwell, said he was often stopped in the street for a chat by the many people he had worked for over the years. She said: “I don’t think you will find anyone in Newmarket that won’t know him. There were only about two shops in the whole of the High Street that he didn’t clean. “They broke the mould when they made Dad. He was what you would call a true gentleman. People would talk to him and he would listen and you knew it wouldn’t go any further. He wouldn’t turn anyone away. I never heard him swear or say a bad word about anyone. He will be sorely missed.”

Born in Newmarket on March 4, 1914, Mr Day was the youngest of six children and attended All Saints Primary School, which he left at the age of 14. His many jobs before window cleaning included working at a bicycle shop, a greengrocer’s, a dairy and Newmarket’s former Kingsway cinema, where he met his wife, Edith, who died in 2010, aged 91, just three weeks away from the couple’s 70th wedding anniversary.

During the Second World War, Mr Day served in the Burma Campaign, which he joined one month after his wedding at Newmarket’s All Saints Church. He returned to window cleaning after the war and spent 20 years driving Green Goddess fire engines with the Auxiliary Fire Service. He leaves behind his daughter, Susan, grandchildren Anita, 41, from Burwell, and Maryjane, 38, from Soham, and six great grandchildren. His funeral will be held at West Suffolk Crematorium on Friday, February 24, at 10am. Mr Day’s family have asked that, instead of sending flowers, donations be made to the Burma Star Association.