My memories date from about 1945 when we would visit Grandad at his home at 87 Marchmont Road, Wallington.
It seemed a large house and in the garden was a mature fig tree (against a south facing wall) which bore a good crop each year. Frank also remembers a good lupin bed.
One
of my earliest phrases (apparently) was "par" mend. When I would take him my
broken toy, out would come the Durafix glue from the top drawer of his desk
to carry out the repair. My mother recalled that he used to operate an acetylene
magic lantern (which unfortunately I have no recollection off).
He was born in Liverpool and first joined Barings Bank there, probably as an office boy at 16 as he had to help support the family. He was largely self educated and it would be interesting to see if Mary/Frank have any record of the family in Liverpool.
It appears the family moved to East Finchely before moving to Wallington.
| War service: | First World war not known, may have been too old for active service |
| Second World war I think he was a Warden |
I
remember going in his car, an Armstrong Siddely(?), fairly soon after the end
of the war when petrol was hard to come by, which was quite a treat.
They moved to 33 Tuddenham Road, Ipswich about 1950. My father was the first person to spend the night in the house before they moved in and there was no electricity - it was thought to be rather spooky! The house had a large lawn and I had great fun marking out a badminton court with a proper machine for marking the lines (with whitewash). Frank and I used to enjoy climbing the trees.
I was one of the few grandchildren to attend their golden wedding dinner (1954) because I was at school in Framlingham at the time.
Other interests - he was also a Church elder.