This tale is true. I wish it wasn’t. It describes events that took place in my pre-pubescent days. See my remarks later, after reading below.
Uncle John

I’ve added the following to give the reader some perspective of my father’s ‘family’.
My dad had two brothers, John and David – there had been a third, Joseph, who I was informed had been in the Royal Navy, and whose life was lost when ‘Glorious’ was torpedoed by a U-boat during World War II. There was a sister, Mary, regarded I suspect, as ‘a black sheep’ by her brothers.

My retrospective on the events relating to John are, that I pondered why nothing had apparently been done to help John with his very obvious paranoia.
Did my father refer John’s fears and actions to a doctor? I strongly suspect that he did not. ‘Finger-wagging’ he was very fond of, and that, I suspect was all that his ‘talks’ consisted of.
That in succession John was in danger of electrocuting himself, seemed of no import. It took a threat of blowing himself up, together with half of the other residents of his street, before anything positive was done. This is nothing short of shameful.

As it happened, John ‘outlasted’ my father, and apparently had left his ‘worldly possessions’ to my father. This I know, by being contacted by Mary. Well I don’t believe there were many men in Gateshead with my name, so it wouldn’t have been too difficult.
I visited Mary, by then a fairly old woman. She was ‘most concerned’ that if a descendant of my Dad’s didn’t come forward, the ‘social’ would get the ‘money’.
I listened carefully, then left, and did nothing.