Topic: Our ancestors' greatest achievements
We started where we had left off last month, with a couple of ‘disaster’ stories. One involved the brother of a Great Grandfather who died in 1876 aged just 14 where the cause of death was given as “kicked out of a cart“ and “died as a result of a carting accident”.
There was also the tale of a grandmother who married at the age of nineteen and had three children. One died of scarlet fever aged three, one died aged 2 months and was buried with his father, who died aged 25. The lady concerned went on to re-marry and have a large family. However, our group member wondered if a tiny hand-stitched cotton vest that was amongst her grandmother’s possessions had been worn by one of those that she had lost.
Moving on to this month’s topic, we heard about a Great Uncle who had been awarded an OBE for his years of service in the Inland Revenue and a grandmother who had met Bob Hope while working in service.
Another notable achievement was the 60th Wedding Anniversary of one of our members on this very day!
One member brought along photos of her father who, as well as being an engineer, had enjoyed a range of social activities. There were photos of rabbits that he had kept and showed, one of his best fishing catch and another of him dressed in his regalia as the Captain of the Bowls Club. The cups and trophies that he had won over the years had been shared between his children.
Another group member told of her 3x great grandfather who had served as a parish clerk for forty years… yet couldn’t write! He would acknowledge receipt of his salary with an X.
We heard the tale of parents and child who could all lay claim to the title of having made the greatest achievement. The mother, the daughter of a bricklayer, went from working as a barmaid in a Gillingham pub to marrying a chemist and then helping to run a huge convalescent home for miners in Wales. The father (the chemist) was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps where he was involved in the development of the phosphorus bomb, rising through the ranks to Major, before becoming the superintendent of the aforementioned convalescent home. One of their sons joined the RAF and, during a 22-year career, piloted 38 different types of aircraft, shot down enemy planes and a V1 flying bomb, took a bullet to his shoulder during one flight and joined the Goldfish Club after he ditched off the coast of Portugal. He retired in 1957 at the rank of Squadron Leader with a DFC and having been mentioned in dispatches.
Continuing the armed forces theme, we heard about a father who was in the Royal Engineers. During the early 1940s, with the Germans moving into France, he and his fellow REs were secretly taken to France and tasked with blowing up anything that could be of use in the German advances. When he eventually made his way back to England, he went straight to BHS, where his wife worked, to surprise her. However, she was so embarrassed to see him looking so dishevelled that she sent him straight home before her co-workers could catch sight of him!
For our final achiever, we needed to travel back to the seventeenth century to hear about Edmund, who was descended from a line of vicars. After an education at Oxford, he became a famous, if somewhat controversial, preacher and writer. He worked in Smyrna and travelled widely, with a book about his travels being published posthumously. On his return to England, he took up the post of vicar in Walthamstow, where he lived out the remainder of his life. Within the church still stands a column that he brought back from Greece. He is included in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Report by: Helen Stenhouse