Wolfgang Manthey obituary

My father, Wolfgang Manthey, who has died aged 86, first became interested in puppetry while at art college in Germany in the 1950s, and was an apprentice under the famous Harro Siegel. He toured the world performing shows with Siegel’s troupe, apparently once even appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US.

In the late 50s Wolfgang left Germany for Britain, where he ended up working at a puppet theatre in Broadstairs, Kent, after having been swindled out of what little money he had with him. He eventually made his way to London where he helped to build the Little Angel puppet theatre in Islington, and subsequently worked there for a while. In the early 60s he was employed as a puppet sculptor on the television show Stingray, where he met his future wife, Carolyn Turner.

Wolfgang and Carolyn married in 1966 and formed their own puppet company, the Manthey Marionettes (which later became Calumet Puppets), performing plays with marionettes, rod puppets and eventually shadow puppets. The puppets were always beautifully designed, and many are now kept at the National Puppetry Archive. They performed regularly throughout the 70s and 80s, and also offered fun workshops for children during that time.

Born in the interwar Free City of Danzig, now Gdańsk in Poland, Wolfgang was one of four children of a farming family. In his 20s he decided to travel in search of new opportunities. Being a German in Britain so soon after the war, he suffered some prejudice, and he was regularly checked on by the authorities. He was once questioned about being a communist after a book by Karl Marx as seen on his bookshelf.

In the 70s he got a job teaching art, in his own inimitable manner, at Trevelyan school in Windsor. He took early retirement in the early 90s to spend more time with Carolyn.

In later life he became a doting grandfather, affectionately known as Opa, and was never happier than spending time with his three grandchildren, Percy, Posy and Christopher.

He had a unique sense of humour and was certainly thought of as somewhat of an eccentric, but in a good way. My friends have certainly never forgotten his unique way of answering the phone to them when I still lived in the family home – “Hello, this is the butler speaking.”

Carolyn died in 1999. Wolfgang is survived by their two children – my sister, Jane, and me – and three grandchildren.