Ginger - icon of St Albans

So to do justice to this icon of St Albans in the wake of his death, it was a relief for me to speak to Jenny Robinson, who knew him almost all his life.

She told me: "I first became aware of Ginger when I was about ten - he was about 16."

She told me Ginger was born in London in 1937, presumably an orphan or a foundling as he was brought up in a convent in Worcestershire.

This was in the early 1950s, when her father, Jock Wilson, was a mental health nurse at Harperbury Hospital, where Ginger came to spend his adolescence after leaving the convent.

Mrs Robinson said: "Although Ginger couldn't read or write, I am sure he wasn't mentally ill in any way - I think in those days young people who didn't have anywhere to live were sometimes sent to a mental institution.

"Ginger got on very well with my father, and would often come to visit us in our home nearby.

"In those days he dressed as a Teddy boy, with creeper shoes and long jackets.

"I got the impression that he just accepted Harperbury Hospital was his life.

"He took everything in his stride - that was part of his character.

"He was always self-sufficient, and accepted everything life threw at him."

Ginger left Harperbury in 1961 - presumably somebody in authority belatedly realised a healthy adult was living in the hospital - and took work with the Bertram Mills travelling circus.

Mrs Robinson said: "I don't know exactly what work he did, but I think it was something to do with the elephants."

For about seven years, Ginger toured England with the circus, but regularly dropped in to see he father, and visit old friends among the patients.

As the 1960s progressed, his familiar image developed - battered leather, thick studded belt, tattoos, cowboy hat and ten-inch knife.

In about 1968, he left the circus and came to live in St Albans.

Mrs Robinson said: "At first he lived in a whole variety of places - I knew one person who let him stay in a tent in her garden."

But after a few years, he acquired a battered camper van - probably a gift - and moved to Gentle's Yard.

Once owned by Gentle's building firm, this was an empty yard behind French Row, now occupied by Christopher Place shopping centre.

Mrs Robinson said: "It was just a big open space with bricks, rubble and greenery.

"People used to walk through it to get from Verulam Road to French Row."

Ginger's caravan stayed in the yard nearly ten years, his owner pursuing his chosen occupation of, in Mrs Robindon's words, "ducking and diving".

She said: "He did a bit of buying and selling, and off jobs.

"And he was a great card-player.

"Somehow he always kept his head above water.

"Lots of people would help him out.

"He was involved with hundreds of residents for one reason or another.

"People were always more than generous.

"He would pop in to my sister in Watson's Walk, and she would give him tea.

"After I married, he used to come and see us in Toulmin Drive.

"Even though he did not read or write, he knew all sorts of things.

"He would talk about what was going on in the world, and what was going wrong with the country.

"He loved walking in the countryside, and always knew what was going on in it."

But despite Ginger's love of setting the world to rights, she does not associate him with any clear political views.

May residents remember him from Jack's Café, alternating topical debate with fiercely fought games of three-card brag.

Eventually, the district council, which owned the yard, decided to sell it for retail development.

But Ginger, who had lived there long enough to establish squatter's rights, was not budging.

Protracted negotiations ensued, and he was eventually bought out in about 1980.

Mrs Robinson said: "I think he got £20,000, but lots of people thought he had been stitched up over the money."

Newly wealthy but homeless, Ginger bought a much bigger and grander camper van, which he parked by Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub.

This was his main home for many years, but he gradually spent more and more time with friends in Pershore, Worcestershire.

It is thought that the his camper van was last at the Fighting Cocks in 2001, although he was seen in the city centre as recently as 18 months ago.

Mrs Robinson says Ginger had become disillusioned with the changing character of St Albans, a feeling shared by herself and many long-time residents.

Suffering from Parkinson's disease, he neglected to take his medication, although it was a heart attack that killed him in a Worcestershire hospital on Friday, February 8 at the age of 70.

Mrs Robinson said: "I don't think you would find anybody else like Ginger.

"He was a one-off. He will be terribly missed by the people of St Albans."

More than 100 mourners are expected at the funeral in Pershore at 1pm tomorrow.

• We have received a number of touching tributes to Ginger. To read them, or to leave your own, click the link below.