Mum. Part I.

I decided I would carry on from a previous post. I've been doing a bit more scanning of old photos ready to do another post on my ancestors. Today's post is on my mother's early life.


This is the first photo ever taken of her. She was born on 10th November 1918 in Lowestoft, Suffolk just a few hours before the Armistice was signed. They then moved to Yoevil in Somerset and then on to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.


She is about three here with her favourite dolly.


Five years old with baby sister, my Aunty Kath.


These are Mum's parents. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Gertrude.


I think Mum is six here. I remember she told me that the little dress and hat she wore was made of paper. She is at a fancy dress party.


Mum and Aunty Kath grew up a bit ...


... and became young ladies. Here they are with their parents.


This was taken just before she left home to work in London. Because of the bombings she was evacuated to Cardiff, which is where she met my father.


My father was in the Merchant Navy and was heavily involved in the Atlantic convoys.


When Mum and Dad got engaged, Mum had some photos taken. This is the one she gave my father to take away with him. He was subsequently torpedoed off the coast of Africa. Being the senior officer, he had to take the names of the survivors in the lifeboat. The only paper he had was my mother's photograph which accounts for the fact that it is a bit dog-eared. It had been in the water with him. On the back of this he wrote the names of the surviving crew.


It's a bit faint now, but perhaps you can just make out some names and the salt stains. How my father got back to Cardiff from the Atlantic off Africa is another posting.



They got married and had Maalie and Lorenzo!