Thursday, 16 June 2022

52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 22 - Conflict

For the theme of ‘Conflict’ I have chosen to look at what my Dad and his siblings did during the second world war (1939-1945).  My Dad had seven full and half-siblings.

Dad’s eldest brother, Alf, was killed in a motorbike accident in 1926 at the age of 24.  This was huge shock for all the family and for my Dad, who looked up to his big brother, there was a lifelong hatred of motorbikes.  But that story is for another time.

In the 1930s the family lived in Letchworth in Hertfordshire, apart from eldest daughter Vi, who was married and lived in Newhaven in Sussex with her husband and two children.

Jim was married and had two young daughters.   Dick was also married and also had two young daughters. It's a funny thing with our family that the boys always seem to have lots of girls and few boys, whilst it is the other way around with the girls, who seem to have a higher number of boys!  Dad and his younger half-brother, Basil, were unmarried, and both still living at home with their widowed father in Shott Lane.  Middle sister Nellie was married and living in Letchworth with her husband and two small boys.  With youngest half-sister Bella working as an usherette at the Broadway Cinema.

In the 1939 Register:

Jim does not appear in the 1939 register at all, but his wife Amy and 2 children do, living in their home in Green Lane, Letchworth.  

Dick, a plumber, is living at his home in Archers Way, Letchworth with his wife Lucy, and 2 children.

Dad and Basil are living with their Dad in Shott Lane.  Grandad is described as a Foreman Plumber Journeyman, Dad as a Toolmaker and Basil a Gas fitter maintenance.

Bella is living with Nellie and her husband, Reg, described as a Dairyman, and their two small boys.  Bella is described as a cinema usherette.

Down in Newhaven, Vi’s husband, Bill,  an electrical fitter, was living in King’s Avenue with Vi and their son and daughter.   

With the declaration of War, peoples lives changed.

Jim and Dick served in the army in France and Germany.  Basil served in Ireland and eventually Burma (Myanmar), towards the end of the war. 

Uncle Jim and Grandad 


Uncle Basil

 
Nick, Basil and Dick, just after the war

Nellie’s husband, Reg, joined the Royal Air Force Police, the ‘Snowdrops’ so called because of their white hat.  He served in Belgium and also at RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire, forever associated with the SOE agents, so Nellie was left to run the Dairy on her own.   

Vi’s husband was busy in Newhaven with war work so Vi and her children came up to Letchworth to help Nellie with the dairy whilst Bella went to work at the Spirella in Letchworth.

Vi with the Glebe Dairy handcart

But what of my Dad, Nick?

Dad went to join up in Cambridge but was told that he was an engineer by trade his was a ‘reserved occupation’ and so couldn’t join up!  Dad however did his bit and joined the Home Guard, the real life ‘Dad’s Army’.  He still did his ‘day job’ maintaining the machines as Addis in Hertford and other businesses in Letchworth and additionally Home Guard duties in Letchworth

Here are his reminiscences of the Home Guard in Letchworth which was published a few years ago in Hertfordshire People, the journal of the Hertfordshire Family History Society (1).  




All the boys, and the girls' husbands, returned from the war.  Bella married soon after the war, with her husband having served in the army in the war.

As a footnote, we did some research and discovered that Dad was entitled to the Defence Medal for serving with the Home Guard and a couple of years before he passed away I applied for the medal for him.  He was overjoyed to receive full size and miniature medals amongst his Christmas presents.  We treasure them.  We also assisted my Aunt Nellie in getting Reg's medals and also Uncle Basil's for him. For the second world war, medals had to be applied for, which was different from the first world war, where medals were sent out to the recipients, or next of kin.  

Notes

1. 'The Homeguard in Letchworth' from Hertfordshire People, No 106, September 2008, pp14-15



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