Polish tramp dies in Wolverhampton.

I've just been reading about this on a different site, and thought it may be of some interest here.

A tramp, who lived on a traffic island for 40+ years, died last week. He is believed to have been a Polish man, who came to the UK after WW2.

The thing that intrigued me, is that the town he lived in, Wolverhampton, is looking at maybe renaming the place he lived after him. Or having some kind of memorial. Which I think is a touching tribute.

Here's a bit of comment from the Guardian website:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2201341,00.html


There's also a lot more about "Fred" here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/content/articles/2007/03/22/homeless _polish_feature.shtml

but he shouldnt have had to live and die like that in the first place, shame people didnt care more about him when he was alive!

What does a tramp mean in the UK?

In the US, calling someone a tramp is, somewhat, similar to a slut / *****, but I doubt if this fellow fits in this category.

It's a homeless person.

He was a weirdo, who wanted to live there.

Another Pole living rough !!!! No surprise there .....

You don't know what psychological damage the war did to him to make him choose to live that way....his wife leaving him, was probably just one bad thing too many for him to cope with

Yes but my point is that he wanted to live like that.

Reminds me of Mr Edmund Trebus from a life of Grime, R.I.P

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,805110,00.html

i was intrigued by this.. Ive been to Wolverhampton many times and have never seen or heard of him before. Mind you I dont have a car, so maybe I didnt go past his island. Anyway, by all accounts he was happy there, must have been if he stayed so long.

true, no one could make him change his way of life if he didn't want to



I thought of him as well, they even did a special episode just about him

i think one of Mr Trebus best lines was when the health inspector showed him a dead rat laying in the garden and said "look you've got rats" he replied "don't start telling me about rats, even the queen of England has rats, why do you think she has a royal rat catcher"

Everybody who you do not know id weird. Why? It was his choice to live like that, end of story.

Poor man

i have just come back from Wolverhampton and heard that he got a new tent and other essential supplies every few years from local well wishers. Also he got food taken to him 3 times a day and medical services etc... apparantly he never once gave a word of thanks. Dont know if he spoke English, but sounds like he had it pretty good compared to most homeless people, no wonder he stayed there so long.

My old local tramp-who-probably-didn't-need-to-live-like-a-tramp eventually got a pub named after him.
That's possibly better than a traffic island / pedestrian refuge. Unless he was a teetotaller

Winter is coming...if there is a local tramp near you , why not take em a cup of coffee and a sandwich......Even if they don,t thank you , you will feel better.....