My partner, Huw Watkins, who has died aged 87, was a teacher by profession but his principal interest was poetry, and during the course of his life he must have written 1,000 poems. His published collections included Times (1984) and Reincarnations (2001). He was a longtime member of the Nottingham Poetry Society, and more recently of the Leicester Poetry Society, where we met in 1998.
Huw – a warm and passionate man with a fine sense of humour – was born in Aberdare and grew up in the Rhondda Valley, south Wales, where his father was a miner. He was called up for army service towards the end of the second world war and served in Palestine before undertaking teacher training under the ex-servicemen's programme. In 1947 he married Mary Alvey and they settled in Leicester. For nearly 20 years Huw taught at Greenacres special school, for children with learning disabilities.
As well as poetry, Huw loved painting, and his work was exhibited at the Mall Galleries in London, and at the De Montfort Hall and the City Gallery in Leicester. His poetry and prose were also broadcast on local BBC radio stations. He wrote short stories, too.
Mary died of a brain tumour in 1996 and his daughter, Mary, died in 1999. He is survived by me and four grandchildren, Edmund, Michael, William and Robyn. Huw's son, Gwyn, died soon after him.